IRC returns to Algeria

In a statement issued on Thursday, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Geneva said that it has resumed visits to prisoners in Algeria that had been severed since 1992.

The ICRC added that five of its representatives visited some 11 prisons in the Algerian provinces of Alger, Annaba, and Oran between October 5 and November 15.

It added that the representatives were able to talk personally with 457 prisoners according to the criteria of the Red Cross and that the Algerian authorities permitted them to enter these institutions, which include 6,980 prisoners.

The Algerian dailies, on the other hand, said on Thursday that there will be "a total pardon" for the fighters of the Islamic Salvation Army, the armed wing of the banned Islamic Salvation Front, on the fall of the holy month of Ramadan.