The Arab-Israeli War of 1973, with its accompanying surge in oil prices, was partly orchestrated in Algiers. When Boumedienne died in 1978, the seemingly more benign Chadli Benjedid brought hopes of a more liberal Algeria. But these faded as the country wrestled with mountainous economic problems, amid murmurs of corruption estimated to have cost the impoverished country the equivalent of the entire national debt.

QUESTION: What were the specific corruption cases, and how were the estimates derived? Worth digging deeper into the figures.

Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Alge…, loc. 39