Expats return home, seek reforms
algiers — For weeks, expat Algerians have been streaming home, some just for the weekend, to play their part in the historic changes sweeping the country.
“I took unpaid leave to come and march in Algeria, to be here physically,” said Chahrazade Kaci, who arrived back from London just days before president Abdelaziz Bouteflika resigned in the face of huge protests.
“It’s a duty,” said Kaci, 52, who has spent almost half her life in the British capital since going into exile at the height of Algeria’s 1990s civil war.
Sports shoes on her feet and an Algerian flag draped over her shoulders, she held aloft a sign in English: “Call to all Algerians living abroad — return home and support our citizens in their struggle to build the 2nd republic.”
Kaci was one of many returnees among the immense crowd that filled the streets of Algiers on Friday, the first mass demonstration since Bouteflika announced on Tuesday he was stepping down after two decades in power.
Flying in from Europe, the Gulf and North America, some have used up annual leave or taken extra time off work to take part.
“Since February 22, I haven’t been able to sleep,” Kaci said, referring to the day of the first mass protests against Bouteflika’s bid for a fifth term in office.
“I’m addicted to the internet, I follow developments 24 hours a day and I don’t miss anything on social media,” Kaci said. She was joined in the crowd by her former husband Salah Allali, who had flown in from Qatar, while her daughter Nada, who was born in Britain, and nephew Yazi NaitLadjemil had both come from London to take part in the protest.
Following Bouteflika’s resignation, protestors are now pressing on with calls for sweeping reforms and the departure of key figures in the 82-year-old’s entourage.
Bouteflika’s departure was “just the beginning,” Kaci said. “Still to come is the departure of the rest of the ‘gang’ and the building of a second republic.”—
Bouteflika’s departure was just the beginning. Still to come is the departure of the rest of the ‘gang’ and the building of a second republic Chahrazade Kaci, An Algerian