Algeria sees spate of unrest-linked suicides

ALGIERS: A jobless man who set himself on fire in a north-east Algerian town bordering strife-torn Tunisia to protest the mayor’s refusal to meet him over jobs and housing died of his injuries on Sunday, his family said.

It was the one of four attempted public suicides in Algeria this past week in apparent copycat replays of last month’s self-immolation of a 26-year-old graduate in Tunisia which triggered a popular revolt that led to the ouster of that country’s autocratic ruler Zine Al Abidine Ben Ali.

Mohcin Bouterfif, 37, who set himself alight on Saturday in front of the town hall in Boukhadra, east of Tebessa, died on Sunday afternoon at the hospital where he had been in critical condition from the burns over his body, a member of his family said.

Bouterfif was part of a group of 20 youths who had gathered in front of the townhall to protest against the mayor’s refusal to meet them over jobs and housing, according to residents.

The father of a young girl wanted to “denounce the town leaders’ scornful attitude towards him,” they said.

The head of the municipal assembly was subsequently relieved of his functions by the Tebessa governor, they added.
On Sunday, police intervened to put out the flames as a 34-year-old man, also jobless, tried to set himself on fire outside the headquarters of the domestic intelligence agency for the department of Mostaganem, some 355 kilometres east of Algiers, the APS news agency.

In yet another case, a 27-year-old man also torched himself Friday evening in front of a police station in Jijel outside of Algiers, according to the daily Al Watan, although the reasons for his action were unclear.

The victim, Said. H, appeared at the police station with his chest and upper body in flames, but police rapidly put out the fire with an extinguisher, it said. The man, who suffered second-degree burns, was admitted to a hospital.

Elsewhere, a man in his forties on Wednesday also set himself ablaze in Bordj Menaiel in the Boumerdes region near the Algerian capital, according to the Al Watan.

Desperate over not being listed to receive housing benefits, the father of six doused himself with gasoline and set it alight, but a town official intervened to stop the fire, the daily said.

The man was hospitalised but his life is not in danger, it added.

Tunisia has been hit by similar attempted suicides since Dec.17, when 26-year-old university graduate Mohammed Bouaziz torched himself after he was prevented by police from selling fruit and vegetables to make a living.