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Algeria’s protesters say COVID-19 will not kill movement, just transform it

Amid the spread of the coronavirus in Algeria, the country’s yearlong popular protest movement had to transform its tactics and launched online campaigns to raise awareness about the novel virus.
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As the coronavirus began to spread in Algeria, activists from the popular movement, known as Hirak, debated whether to keep marching or whether to pivot the Hirak campaign to focus on the issue of the pandemic, the protection of the Algerian people and online campaigning. But the Hirak movement now finds itself fighting a media war with the state.

With 1,320 diagnosed cases and 152 deaths as of April 5, it seems that Algeria is in the acceleration phase of the outbreak, but the government has only been rolling out confinement region by region.

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