I am Algerian and i thought about this question asked my parents soooo many times 

After gathering all sorts of information and personnal experience i came to think that :

Algeria has a young population and and is increadibly rich in terms of the territory itself
( the sea, gaz, oil, agriculture etc…)

 The problem comes from History with a big H. Indeed, this country that I love
more than any other has been throught a lot, and when i say a lot i mean … A
LOT. Think about it, we have been colonised, humiliated, tortured and treated
sooooo unfairly by the french colonialist state that :

People were uneducated due to segregation in school, no access to education for

“indigenous”. They didn’t know how to read or write when the country got free,

Terrorism wave just after liberation of the country .Algerian people fought themselves to
get freedom in fact, it is one of the latest countries to be liberated from colonialism when
for example Morroco didn’t have to fight for it. The thing is it caused again a lot of
problems, people were scared wouldn’t send their daughters to school.

Best president (Mohamed Boudiaf) was assasinated live on TV for wanting to reveal all
the corrupted and cowards in politics and in the military. Since the Algeria was and is still
a victim of corruption.

I wouldn’t say it’s a problem but rather a blessing that Algeria is NOT open for mass
tourism which allows the country to keep it’s traditions and religion. In an economic way
Morroco and Tunisia get a lot of money thanks to tourism when Algeria doesn’t

Since algeria is all about petrol, managing and governance is really poorly led.

Inequalities, corruption and not so democratic elections are the result of all this.

To conclued i would say that Algeria has been throught a lot and that’s basically the
result of years and years or hardships.

But you know what ? I prefer Algeria like that after all because when I look of what is
going on in “developped” countries it makes me sick to my stomach, democracy based
on murder and fake freedom. Moreover Algeria is free and I am proud to be Algerian,
symbol of revolution, Che Guevara liked us, Vietnam likes us and that is because Algeria
doesn’t butt in other prolems and won’t let other countries butt in either. Algeria is a
TRUE muslim country, we don’t stab other muslim country’s in the back we NEVER
collaborate with zionists and we inspire Palestine for their freedom endless fight.

I hope my answer helps, it’s a bit messy sorry but this is pretty much what i believe ond
think on the topic ! ;)

NOTE : This answer was written in 2015, and the original question was something along
the lines of “Why is it that Algeria has the lowest infrastructure ?”. The original person
asking also claimed that he had been to Algeria before and saw nothing but poverty,
generally making hyperbolic comments about being extremely underdeveloped. I’ve
decided to update this answer in 2020 as there are things that have changed since 2015.
Here’s what I said a long time ago !

Lowest infrastructure ? What does that even mean ?

So you say you’ve been to Algeria…

Did you see these ? It’s Houari Boumediene Airport, the

After Algeria’s independence from France, it was a striving country with a strong
infrastructure (strong roads, good schools, etc) and it was lead by the passionate guerrilla
leaders during the War of Independence. Algeria was a country that was well off during
the Sixties, Seventies, and Eighties. It was a nation who participated on the global stage,
most notably in the Treaty of Algiers (1981) which resolved the Iran Hostage Crisis of
1979, and let the American citizens come back home.

However, due to political disputes, civil war erupted in Algeria, and terrorists were trying
to take control
What is it like to live in Algeria ?

Is Algeria really a poor country ?

How dangerous is Algeria ?

You said :

“Looking into Statistics, Algeria has some of the highest gas and natural oil reserves in
the world, sitting side by side with countries such as Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Kuwait,
Libya, Iran”

Algeria doesn’t have the highest gas and oil reserves in the world and definitely not
sitting side by side to countries like Russia or Saudi Arabia.

Look at this list of countries by proven oil reserves :

List of countries by proven oil reserves – Wikipedia

You clearly see that Algeria is sitting between countries like Brazil and Mexico and its
reserves is nearly 25 times less then Venezuela or Saud

Because of 2 major things : Governement and Education.

First, the governement is nothing but a criminal organisation, just before the country got
the independence, they assassinated the ones who freed Algeria.

Then, they murdered the best Algerian president ever (on national TV).

They took the power using corruption and terrorisme, and they changed the education
system (the level went from human being to animals).
Now they use the ressourcea of the country for making themself richer, selling Oil and
Gaz to corporate and don’t even think about profits or a bettrr strategy.

France and USA are the ki

It’s underdeveloped because of the imperialist actions France and the US have taken over
the years, starting with the colonisation, to the cout d’état sponsored by France in the
90’s to the dictator sitting there with the blessing of the white House and Paris.

The government is extremely corrupt, from the president, to the security guard at a small
town. Systemic corruption, and intentionally rotting the educational system.

A strong military that protects the elite class from everything, and an elite owned media
that works day and night, on convincing the people that they’re the problem.

Long story short, Algeria is cursed, there has never been a civilized nation there, and
there won’t be.

I wouldn’t say Algeria is so underdevelopped, I think Algeria is progressing interms of

development, the transport network is quit robust and is one of the densest in Africa.
Education is affordable / almost free , you don’t find that in Africa, though there are
bigger issues like high level corruption, unfairness, inequality etc, Algeria I believe with
the right leadership Algeria can be the most developped economy in Africa taking into
account the massive human capital and resources.