ALGERIA

Abdelaziz Bouteflika
President

(pronounced "ab-DEL a-ZEEZ BOOT-ah-FLICK-ah")

"Over the course of the last 10 years … the Algerian population has paid a heavy price in the fight against terrorism. No one is protected from this terrible scourge."

The second largest country in Africa, Algeria is located in North Africa, between the Mediterranean Sea in the north and the Sahara desert in the south. It borders Morocco on the northwest, the Western Sahara and Mauritania on the southwest, Mali and Niger on the south, and Tunisia and Libya on the east. Algeria has an area of 2,381,740 sq km (919,595 sq mi), of which more than 80% is desert.

The Algerian population of more than 32.3 million was growing at an annual rate of 1.68% as of 2002. Arabic is the official language, yet French is widely spoken and used as the language of commerce. Ethnically, Algerians are of an Arab-Berber stock. Islam is the religion of 99% of the people. The local currency is the dinar . Algeria's primary exports are natural gas and petroleum and petroleum products; other exports include phosphate rock, iron ore, citrus fruits, and dates.