Analysis

What a week! The government in Algeria seems to be changing up its tactics. After 30 weeks of playing rope-a-dope, the government is coming out swinging against the demonstration movement with a triple combination.

Nouakchott is abuzz. Ismail Bedda Ould Chiekh Sidiya, President Mohamed Ould Ghazouani’s prime minister, has announced his government and it’s not what Goldilocks would’ve wanted. It’s too technocratic. It’s too politicized. It’s too Bidane. It’s too maraboutic. It’s too new. It’s too old.

The Brookings Institute, a Washington, DC think tank, recently published a study by three American researchers entitled “Algeria’s Uprising: A Survey of Protestors and the Military.” The study purports to survey and analyze protestors’ and Algerian military personnel’s attitudes about Algeria’s current political circumstances and future political developments. In particular, the survey claims to analyze active duty military personnel’s opinions about Army Chief of Staff Major General Ahmed Gaid Salah and his role in Algeria’s pre-electoral period.

Travel and national holidays pushed back delivery of the June NARCO RoundUp, but better late than never. Algeria is in a surprisingly mature political transition – inching carefully forward one week at a time. Libya is still at war, which is becoming increasingly costly and threatening more and more lives directly and indirectly. And Mauritania is surprisingly dynamic, having orchestrated a largely peaceful largely democratic transition and having sidestepped the hydrocarbons sector corruption issues currently plaguing its southern neighbor.