Some 8,000 athletes from 52 African countries plus 1,000 journalists assigned to cover them descended on poor Algiers over the past week for the 9th annual All-Africa Games, a continental mini-Olympics. There have been problems.
Algeria is emerging from a decade of terrorism that isolated it from the outside world. Infrastructure and organization are lagging. The airport and customs were overwhelmed with that kind of influx of people.
The country didn't build new dorms or other facilities in preparation for the game and so had to evict students from their beds in order to accommodate athletes, according to news reports. But basketballers and sprinters tend to be big and tall so many of the visitors don't fit into these student beds. Teams resent being split up and assigned to different places around the city. And competitors coming from other Muslim countries in Africa are complaining that co-ed facilities are inappropriate.
More seriously, hours before the scheduled start of the games a suicide bomber set off a refrigerated truck full of explosives at an army barracks 75 miles east of Algiers, killing 10 soldiers and hurting 30 other people. Al Qaeda's north Africa wing claimed credit for the attack -- which came exactly three months after the prime minister's office was bombed April 11.
Officials told Reuters that the games would go on as planned and that Algerian security forces were experienced at protecting civilians from Islamist rebel attacks.
There are roadblocks and gendarmes (sheriffs) with automatic rifles around their necks everywhere. Newspapers say 8,000 police are on alert around the sports halls and dorms.
With all that drama, the opening ceremony was colorful and interesting, though it didn't attract the kind of full-house crowd the national football championship did.
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