Europe 1 with AFP: Photo credit: RYAD KRAMDI/AFP 18:46 p.m., November 25, 2023

At least 261 women have been victims of femicide in Algeria since 2019, half of whom were mothers and 16 were pregnant at the time of their killings, according to a report presented Saturday near Algiers. Most of the victims were stabbed, had their throats slit or were shot to death.

At least 261 women have been victims of femicide in Algeria since 2019, half of whom were mothers and 16 were pregnant at the time of their killings, according to a report presented Saturday near Algiers. Since "January 1, 2023, 33 women have been killed, and between 2019 and 2022, 228 women have been murdered," said Wiame Awras, a member of the "Féminicides Algérie" collective, presenting this non-exhaustive report, based mainly on cases mentioned by the local press.

From 2019 to 2022, a group of women analysed femicides in Algeria, which were recorded in this report, which concluded that "at least one woman is murdered" every week. Most of the victims were stabbed, slit their throats or shot to death, according to the study, which mentions cases of women being burned alive. "What they have in common is that they are targeted because they are women" in a country where patriarchy reigns and where society remains very conservative, said Wiame Awras, whose group has had direct contact with some families.

Shortcomings in Algeria's judicial system

The reasons given by the murderers included jealousy, "alleged honour killings" and mental illness. "Nearly 80 percent of femicides are committed by a member of the victim's family," Awras said, adding that in 61 percent of cases, it is the spouse, some of whom are "police or military officers who murdered their wives with their service weapons."

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Among the perpetrators, the report also counted many young people who killed their mothers. Sometimes an entire family is complicit in a murder, as was the case with "Nihal, 19, killed in March 2022 by relatives who invoked an honor killing, because she was pregnant out of wedlock," according to the report. Most of the murders (71%) took place in a closed environment such as home or work.

The group denounced shortcomings in the Algerian judicial system, believing that it does not sufficiently protect women against this type of violence and punishes some perpetrators of femicide too lightly. In four years, 13 death sentences have been handed down in Algeria, all of which have been commuted to life imprisonment under a moratorium on the death penalty in the country that has been in place since 1993.