Algiers, the capital and a coastal city with a population of 3.5 million, was by far the hardest hit by the November 9-10 storm. The number of victims across the country has risen to 749 as of November 26, of which 698 were in Algiers. Nearly 1,200 families have been relocated and many schools were wiped out, depriving 8,000 youth of their education.

"We had never seen anything like it. On the one side, there was water coming down at a speed of 100 kilometers [62 miles] an hour and on the other, waves that reached a height of five meters [16.5 feet] ," said Farid in an interview with the El Moudjahid newspaper. Farid lives in the Bab-El-Oued working-class district, among the worst hit by the storm. He was also part of volunteer teams of some 60 people who attempted to rescue people in the water. But, he said, "by evening, there were only a dozen of us left. The flood took the majority. Half of those who died at Bab-El-Oued were the lifeguards."

In an interview, Rafik Zeggane, a young Berber from Algiers, told the Militant his experiences that day. After returning to his neighborhood from a trip downtown "the first shadows of disaster appeared and the sound of firefighter's sirens were resounding everywhere," stated Zeggane. "The road that led to Bab-El-Oued had became a river of mud, taking with it hundreds of cars and their passengers. The houses bordering the road to the Triolet market where people come everyday to shop were swallowed up. By 3:00 p.m. the rain stopped and the poorest districts of the capital found themselves trapped underneath mud and debris and the remains of cars, and with hundreds of dead."

Zeggane participated in the 15th World Festival of Youth and Students held in Algiers last August, an anti-imperialist gathering attended by 6,500 young people from around the world. Zeggane said the flooding was made much worse by the fact that "the ducts built to take away rain water were sealed in 1995 on orders from the army, under the pretext that they permitted terrorist groups active in the capital to have freedom of movement."

On November 13, Algerian president Abdelaziz Bouteflika visited the disaster site. Demonstrations of angry youth shouting antigovernment slogans erupted across the capital. In a statement faxed from Paris to the media, the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) declared that authorities "are largely responsible because they closed underground alleys and tunnels in Algiers for fear of them being used by the armed opposition as hideouts."

The FIS is a bourgeois opposition group that launched armed attacks after the elections it was set to win in 1992 were canceled by the ruling National Liberation Front (FLN). A civil war has raged since, claiming the lives of 100,000 Algerians. The newspaper Liberté also reported that "sewer ducts, which should be regularly cleaned, especially with winter coming, weren't."

Algeria is a country oppressed by imperialism with a foreign debt of $30 billion and an unemployment rate of 30 percent. From 1954–1962 the Algerian workers and farmers led a successful revolution against French colonialism. A revolutionary government of the toilers established under the leadership of Ahmed Ben Bella was overthrown three years later in a coup by a pro-capitalist wing of the FLN led by Houari Boumedienne.

More recently, Algeria was the scene of mass demonstrations demanding national rights for the Berbers, an oppressed nationality in Algeria. Zeggane, who was part of those demonstrations, said of the situation in the country today: "Savage capitalism has increased the number of layoffs, of unemployed, of beggars, and of the homeless. This new disaster aggravates this situation and pushes our patience to its limits."

On November 11, the Algerian government declared a national catastrophe and appealed for international aid. Since then, aid has arrived from Tunisia, Morocco, and France. Tunisia has sent 28 tons of medicine, food, blankets, and mattresses. France and Morocco each sent a civil security team of 30 people.  
 
 
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