Welcome to the New Algeria: Milk Shortages Return in the Country of the “Corporals”
Once again, Algeria is sinking into an absurd and humiliating crisis: a country rich in gas and oil is unable to provide its citizens with something as basic as milk. The military regime, trapped in chronic incompetence and endemic corruption, was forced in a panic to lift its ban on milk powder imports as shelves emptied and queues grew longer.
The self-proclaimed “regional power” has become nothing more than a caricature of itself. Unable to develop a proper agricultural sector, unable to run a rational subsidy system, unable to modernize its agri-food industry, Algeria’s rulers expose every day the total collapse of their economic model. The case of Soummam dairy, forced to beg for 40,000 tons of raw material abroad to avoid collapse, illustrates the catastrophic dependence of a country left with no option but to stretch out its hand despite billions in hydrocarbon revenues.
But the milk crisis is not an isolated incident. It adds to an endless black list of shortages: cooking oil, semolina, medicine, sugar, even diesel. Each month brings new humiliations for a population already crushed by unemployment, inflation, and the collapse of purchasing power. Meanwhile, the “corporals” in power squander national wealth on sterile diplomatic adventures and arms purchases to fuel their war propaganda, while ordinary citizens fight to find a subsidized bag of milk.
This structural failure lays bare a regime built on permanent lies, incapable of reform, incapable of innovation, and above all incapable of ensuring the dignity of its people. Algeria has become a colossus with feet of clay, its social fragility deepening as popular anger builds. These recurring shortages are not just a sign of incompetence; they are the warning signals of a system on its last breath, corroded by corruption and fear of collapse.
At this pace, the so-called “Republic of the Barracks” is heading straight toward implosion. A regime that cannot feed its people has no legitimacy to govern.
Translated from Abderrazzak Boussaid’s French article – le7tv
