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How unemployment helped drive Algeria protests

In addition to charges of nepotism and corruption among the ruling class, bleak employment prospects — particularly for youth — drove many Algerians to the streets.
Students take part in a protest seeking the departure of the ruling elite in Algiers, Algeria April 16, 2019.   REUTERS/Ramzi Boudina - RC12B1529450

After weeks of government climbdowns and policy reversals, the scale and pace of Algeria’s popular protest movement continues unchecked. Across Algeria, Fridays have become synonymous with protest, with cities grinding to a halt as the cars and shoppers that typically occupy the public thoroughfares make way for brightly colored banners, chants and security forces.

In their hundreds of thousands, the young have powered Algeria’s popular movement. Continuing to demand the clans, nepotism and ingrained power structures that have smothered their country for decades make way for a new generation of leaders, untarnished by the sclerotic corruption that has come to characterize the old.

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