Thenia, Algiers - Protests have been held in several cities across Algeria to demand action to stop violence against women following the rape and murder of a teenager.
According to a recent BBC report, the charred body of Chaïma, 19, was found in a deserted petrol station in Thenia, 80km east of the capital Algiers, this month.
Local media reported that Chaima was kidnapped days before her body was found.
According to not-for-profit media outlet Middle East Monitor, her suspected attacker was known to authorities as her family had submitted a police report about him, her mother said in a video posted online.
BBC reports that her killer has confessed to the crime and is under arrest.
Furthermore, Chaïma's mother said the suspect had attempted to rape her daughter in 2016, when she was 15, but the case was dropped.
Meanwhile, women held sit-in protests in Algiers and Oran, chanting Chaïma's first name and calling for an end to gender-based violence.
According to local media, activists also took to social media with the hashtag #JeSuisChaima which means “I am Chaïma”.
Middle East Monitor reports that Chaima’s mother appealed to Algerian President Abdel-Majid Tebboune to implement the death sentence against the perpetrator, who she said had since been detained and confessed to the crimes.
Meanwhile, moving across to neighbouring Tunisia where a 29-year-old woman was brutally murdered in September, has reignited a debate in Tunisia over capital punishment, with the country’s president suggesting an end to a decades-old moratorium on the death penalty, writes the Guardian.
African News Agency/ANA