Algerians riot over food prices

Riots over rising food prices and chronic unemployment spread out from Algeria's capital yesterday, with youths burning down government buildings and shouting: "Bring us sugar!"

Police helicopters circled over the capital, Algiers and the working-class neighbourhood of Bab el-Oued near the Casbah saw streets cordoned by officers.

A police station, a car salesroom and other buildings were burned during riots that started on Wednesday. Crowds of youths pelted police with stones. Officers fired tear gas canisters.

The violence started after Muslim evening prayer. It came after price rises for milk, sugar and flour in recent days, and amid simmering frustration that Algeria's abundant gas-and-oil resources have not translated into broader prosperity.

Youths resumed their rioting yesterday afternoon.

Violence also erupted in the El Harrach neighbourhood, and the suburbs of Rouiba, Bordj El Bahri and Dergana.

Algeria is still recovering from an insurgency that ravaged the country throughout the 1990s after the army cancelled 1992 elections fundamentalists were set to win. Bab el-Oued is a former stronghold of that group, the banned Islamic Salvation Front.