Images circulating on social media are striking. They show an exhausted and sometimes hungry population, forced to wait for hours in front of shops in the hope of obtaining basic necessities. Scenes unworthy of a state that is supposed to have all the means to guarantee food security for its citizens. Men, women, elderly people and children line up across all wilayas, with some even collapsing from fatigue, despair and humiliation.
This situation is unfortunately not new. It repeats itself every year, to the point of becoming a grim routine. Milk, oil, semolina and sugar, essential products during Ramadan, have become scarce and almost inaccessible. The shortage of milk and oil, for example, has reached a critical level, forcing residents to wait for hours in front of grocery stores with desperately empty shelves, with no guarantee of being served.
Added to this food crisis is another major scourge: the collapse of the Algerian dinar. The national currency has lost a large part of its value, severely eroding household purchasing power. On the parallel market, one euro is now exchanged for more than 300 dinars, a symbolic threshold that illustrates the dramatic devaluation of the currency and the regime’s inability to stabilize the economy. Salaries remain stagnant, prices are soaring, and daily life is becoming increasingly expensive for an already vulnerable population.
In the face of this bleak picture, one question keeps coming back: where does the national wealth go? How can a country so endowed with natural resources be incapable of feeding its population with dignity and preserving the value of its currency? For many observers, activists and civil society organizations, responsibility is clear. It lies with the military regime, accused of poor governance, opaque management and a total disconnect between its triumphalist rhetoric and the reality experienced by citizens.
While the authorities multiply propaganda statements about sovereignty and stability, the Algerian people are confronted with hunger, poverty and daily humiliation. This glaring contradiction fuels anger and indignation. As Ramadan approaches, the social emergency is undeniable. The Algerian people should not have to endure chronic shortages, the devaluation of their currency and hardship in a country rich in resources. As long as the root causes of this crisis are not addressed, the gap between official discourse and reality will continue to widen.
Translated from Abderrazzak Boussaid’s French article – le7tv