58 Journalists Murdered in Algeria Since 1993

Updated January 1, 1999

Tahar DjaoutRuptures, May 26, 1993
Rabah Zenati, Algerian State Television (ENTV), August 3, 1993
Abdelhamid BenmeniAlgérie-Actualité, August 9, 1993
Saad BakhtaouiEl-Minbar, September 9, 1993
Abderrahmane Chergou, PAGS party paper, September 28, 1993

Djamel BouhidelNouveau Tell, October 5, 1993
Mustapha Abada, ENTV, October 14, 1993
Smail Yefsah, ENTV, October 18, 1993
Youcef Sebti, Freelance, December 27, 1993
Olivier Quemener, Freelance, February 1, 1994
Abdelkader Hireche, ENTV, February 28, 1994
Mohamed HassaineAlger Républicain, March 1, 1994
Hassan Benaouda, ENTV, March 5, 1994
Yahia Djamel Benzaghou, Prime Minister’s Press Office, March 19, 1994
Madjid YacefI’Hebdo libéré, March 21, 1994
Mohamed MeceffeukDétective, April 13, 1994
Ferhat CherkitEl Moudjahid, June 7, 1994
Yasmina DriciLe Soir d’Algérie, July 10, 1994
Mohamed Lamine Legoui, Algerian Press Service (APS), July 21, 1994
Smail Sbaghdi, APS, September 25, 1994
Mouloud Barroudi, National Agency of Filmed News, September 25, 1994
Lahcene Bensaadallah, El Irshad, October 12, 1994
Tayeb Bouterfif, Algerian Radio, October 16, 1994
Farah Ziane, Révolution Africaine, October 20, 1994
Mohamed Salah Benachour, APS, October 27, 1994
Ahmed Issaad, ENTV, November 30, 1994
Nasseredine Lekhal, El Massa, November 30, 1994
Said Mekbel, Le Matin, December 3, 1994
Zineddine Aliou Salah, Liberté, January 6, 1995
Ali Abboud, Radio Chaine 1, January 7, 1995
Abdelhamid Yahiaoui, El Chaab, January 12, 1995
Nacer Ouari, ENTV, February 1, 1995
Djamel ZiaterEl Djoumhouria, February 17, 1995
Rachida Hammadi, ENTV, March 20, 1995
Ali Boukerbache, Media-TV, March 21, 1995
Mohamed Abderrahmani, El Moudjahid, March 27, 1995
Mekhlouf Boukzer, ENTV, April 4, 1995
Azzedine Saidj, El Ouma, May 15, 1995
Malika Sabour, Echourouk al-Arabi, May 21, 1995
Bakhti Benaouda, El Djoumhouria, May 22, 1995
Mourad Hmaizi, ENTV, May 27, 1995
Ahmed Takouchet, Radio Cirta, June 17, 1995
Naima HamoudaRévolution Africaine, August 2, 1995
Ameur Ouagueni, Le Matin, August 20, 1995
Said TazroutLe Matin, September 3, 1995
Brahim GuaraouiEl Moudjahid, September 4, 1995
Yasmina Brikh, Algerian Radio, September 4, 1995
Said Brahimi, ENTV, September 9, 1995
Omar OuartilanAl-Khabar, October 3, 1995
Saida DjebailiEl-Hayat el-Arabia, October 16, 1995
Hamid MahioutLiberté, December 2, 1995
Khedidja DahmaniEchourouk al-Arabi, December 5, 1995
Mohamed MekatiEl Moudjahid, January 9, 1996
Abdallah BouhachekRévolution et Travail, February 10, 1996
Allaoua Ait M’barakLe Soir d’Algérie, February 11, 1996
Mohamed DorbaneLe Soir d’Algérie, February 11, 1996
Djamel DerrazLe Soir d’Algérie, February 11, 1996
Djilali ArabidouAlgérie Actualité, March 12, 1996
Mohamed Guessab, Algerian Radio, August 12, 1996


59 JOURNALISTS KILLED IN ALGERIA
Profiles

1996

August 12: Mohamed Guessab, a host with the religious program “Radio Koran” on the state-run national radio was killed when unidentified gunmen sprayed his car with gunfire in the Algiers suburb of Beau Fraiser. One of Guessab’s brothers, who was riding with him, was also killed.

March 12: Unidentified men shot and killed Djilali Arabdiou, a reporter and photographer with the pro-government weekly Algerie Actualite, in Ain Naadja, a southwestern suburb of Algiers.

February 11: Allaoua Ait M’barak, editor in chief of the independent evening daily  Le Soir d’AlgerieMohamed Dorbane, a columnist with the paper, and Djamel Derraz, a writer with the paper’s leisure section, were killed when a car bomb exploded outside their paper’s office, in the Maison de la Presse Tahar Djaout, in Algiers.

February 10: Abdallah Bouhachek, editor of  Revolution et Travaille, weekly organ of the Algeria’s largest workers’ union (UGTA), was shot and killed by unknown assailants near the town of Blida, south of Algiers. He was on his way to work.

January 9: Mohamed Mekati, a correspondent for the government-owned newspaper El Moudjahid, was shot by unidentified gunmen near his home in Ain Naadja, a southwestern suburb of Algiers, as he was returning from work. The 39 year-old reporter died of his injuries the following day.

1995

December 5: Unidentified assailants shot and killed Khedidja Dahmani, a reporter for the independent, Arabic-language weekly Echourouk al-Arabi, near her home in Baraki, a suburb south of Algiers.

December 2: Hamid Mahiout, a reporter for the independent, French-language daily Liberte, and his driver Ahmed Belkhefellah, were kidnapped and killed. Their decapitated bodies were found the next morning in Algiers’ Rais Hamidou neighborhood.

October 16: Saida Djebaili, a reporter for the independent, Arabic language El-Hayat el-Arabia daily newspaper, and her driver were shot and killed by unknown assailants in Algiers as she returning from work.

October 3: Omar Ouartilan, editor in chief of the Arabic-language, independent daily newspaper Al-Khabar, was shot and killed as he left his home in the Belcourt district of Algiers.

September 9: Said Brahimi, a journalist with Algerian state television (ENTV), and his wife Radja, a television employee, were gunned down in the town of Cherarda, east of Algiers.

September 4: Yasmina Brikh, a journalist for a cultural program on Algerian radio, was murdered near her home in the Eucalyptus section of Algiers.

September 4: The body of Brahim Guaraoui, a cartoonist for the government-controlled daily El Moudjahid, was found near his home in Eucalyptus. He had been kidnapped from his home.

September 3: Said Tazrout, Tizi-Ouzou bureau chief for the French-language daily Le Matin, was shot and killed outside his apartment building.

August 20: Ameur Ouagueni, head of the international news department of the independent, French-language daily Le Matin, was shot and mortally wounded in front of his home in Algiers. He died later that night in hospital.

August 2: The body of Naima Hamouda, a cultural reporter with the weekly Revolution Africaine, as discovered near the apartment building where she had been staying in the Algiers suburb of Saoula. She had been shot to death and was so badly disfigured that she was not properly identified until August 11.

June 17: Ahmed Takouchet, a journalist with Radio Cirta of Constantine who was popularly known as “Hakim,” was kidnapped from his home by four men. The next day his body was found with his throat slit.

May 27: Mourad Hmaizi, a reporter with Algerian television, was shot to death when gunmen ambushed his car in the Algiers suburb of Baraki on his way home from work.

May 22: Bakhti Benaouda, an academic and frequent contributor to the government-run daily El Djoumhouria, was gunned down by unknown assailants in the Delmonti quarter of the western city of Oran.

May 21: Malika Sabour, a cultural reporter for the independent weekly Echourouk al-Arabi, was shot dead in her home in Reghaia, about 25 km east of Algiers, by masked gunmen disguised as policemen.

May 15: Azzedine Saidj, editor in chief of the now defunct El Ouma, was found dead in his car with his throat slit about 15 km east of Algiers.

April 4: Mekhlouf Boukzer, a television sports commentator, was found dead near his home in Constantine, in eastern Algeria. His throat was slit.

March 27: Mohamed Abderrahmani, director-general of the government-run, French language daily  El Moudjahid, was shot and killed in Algiers by unkown gunmen while on his way to work.

March 21: Ali Boukerbache, owner of Media-TV, a private television production company, was shot and killed east of Algiers.

March 20: Televsion reporter Rachida Hammadi was shot and critically wounded outside her parents’ home near Algiers. Her sister, a secretary at the television station, was killed in the attack. Rachida died of her wounds in a Paris hospital on the night of March 30-31.

February 17: Djamel Ziater, a reporter with the Oran-based, Arabic-language daily El Djoumhouria, was shot and killed as he was visiting his mother’s grave at a cemetery outside Oran, in western Algeria.

February 1: Nacer Ouari, a television journalist, was killed near his home in the Algiers suburb of Sidi Moussa, as he was leaving for work, ten days after the radical Armed Islamic Group (GIA) issued a communique threatening to execute all television and radio journalists.

January 13: The body of Abdelhamid Yahiaoui, a journalist with the government-controlled Arabic daily El Chaab, was found found near his home in Baraki with two bullet wounds in the head. Yahiaoui was abducted on January 12 as he left his home to meet a friend.

January 7: Ali Abboud, a journalist with state-owned Radio Chaine 1, was shot and seriously wounded in Algiers on the morning of January 6. He was hospitalized and died of his wounds the next day.

January 6: Zineddine Aliou Salah, a reporter for the independent French-language daily Liberte, was shot and killed in morning as he was leaving his home in Blida, south of Algiers. According to his colleagues, Aliou Salah’s name was on a death list displayed at mosques in Blida.

1994

December 3: Mekbal, editor-in-chief of the independent French-language daily Le Matin, was shot in the head by unknown assailants as he ate lunch in a restaurant in downtown Algiers, near his paper’s offices. He went into a coma and died of his wounds the next morning at Ain-Naadja Hospital. Mekbal had survived previous assassination attempts, including one on March 8 of this year. The Armed Islamic Group claimed responsibility for his murder.

November 30: Ahmed Issaad, a reporter for Algerian state television, and Nasseredine Lekhal, a reporter for the state-owned Arabic-language daily El Massa, were killed in Boufarik, about 30 km south of Algiers. The two journalists had been forced form their homes by gunmen, who then shot and beheaded them, according to Algerian television.

October 27: Mohamed Salah Benachour, a reporter for the official Algerian Press Service (APS), was shot and killed near his home in Boufarik, south of Algiers, as he was returning from work.

October 20: Farah Ziane, the editor of the weekly Revolution Africaine, was shot and killed outside his home in Blida, south of Algiers.

October 16: Tayeb Bouterfif, a journalist with the government’s Berber-language radio station, was fatally shot outside his home in the suburb of Baraki, south of Algiers.

October 12: Lahcene Bensaadallah, director of El Irshad, a publication affiliated with the moderate Islamice party Hamas, was shot and killed outside his home in the Badr section of Algiers.

September 25: Smail Sbaghdi, a journalist with the official Algerian Press Service (APS), was killed in Algiers while driving in a taxi. The body of Mouloud Barroudi, a cameraman with the National Agency of Filmed News, was found near his home, west of Algiers. He had been killed with a knife.

July 21: Unidentified men shot and killed Mohamed Lamine Legoui, a correspondent of the official APS news agency, outside his home in Bou-Saada, in the M’Sila region. There were no witnesses to the murder.

July 10: A group of men in police uniforms stopped Yasmina Drici, a proofreader with the French-language daily Le Soir d’Algerie, and a Polish friend as they were driving near her home in the Algiers suburb of Rouiba. Ms. Drici objected when the men removed her friend from the car. The men then searched Ms. Drici’s pocketbook and discovered her press card. Her Polish friend was released. Police found Yasmina Drici’s body with her throat slit the next day.

June 7: Ferhat Cherkit, adjunct editor-in-chief of the government-run daily El Moudjahid, was shot and killed in downtown Algiers.

April 13: Mohamed Meceffeuk, a reporter with the weekly Detective, was gunned down in a town west of Algiers.

March 21: Madjid Yacef, a photojournalist, was shot and killed by gunmen in a raid on the office of l’Hebdo libere , an independent weekly where he worked. A driver for the paper was also killed, and three other employees were seriously injured in the raid.

March 19: Yahia Djamel Benzaghou, a journalist with the Prime Minister’s press office, was gunned down outside his home in Bab El Oued.

March 5: Hassan Benaouda, a television journalist, was shot in the head by unidentified assailants in the Casbah section of Algiers. He died of his wounds a week later.

February 28: Abdelkader Hireche, a television journalist, was assassinated by three gunmen in an eastern suburb of Algiers.

February 1: Olivier Quemener, a freelance journalist from France, was shot and killed while filming in the Casbah section of Algiers.

1993

December 27: Youcef Sebti, a poet and freelance journalist who contributed to El Watan and other Algiers-based publications, was murdered at the National Institute for Agronomy where he taught and resided.

October 18: Smail Yefsah, assistant news director of Algerian television, was stabbed and then shot to death outside his home in Bab Ezzouar in Algiers.

October 14: Mustapha Abada, former director of Algerian state television (replaced in August 1993), was shot and killed in Ain Taya, near Algiers.

October 5: Djamel Bouhidel, a photographer with the weekly Nouveau Tell, was killed in Blida, west of Algiers.

September 28: Abderrahmane Chergou, a former journalist and official of the leftist PAGS party, was stabbed to death outside his home in the Algiers suburb of Mohammedia.

September 9: Saad Bakhtaoui, a journalist with El-Minbar, organ of a small political party, was kidnapped and shot to death.

August 9: Abdelhamid Benmeni, a journalist with the news weekly Algerie-Actualite, was killed at his home.

August 3: Rabah Zenati, a television journalist, was killed by unknown gunmen outside his parents’ home in a suburb of Algiers.

May 26: Tahar Djaout, editor-in-chief of the weekly cultural publication  Ruptures, was shot outside his home near Algiers by Muslim militants. He died of his wounds on June 2. Djaout, who won the prestigious Prix Mediterranee in 1991 for his novel Vigiles, had received several death threats.