Algeria’s Abdelmadjid Tebboune appoints newly revamped cabinet

Government reshuffle kept top ministers with structural changes to certain ministries

Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune takes the oath of office for his second term in Algiers on September 17. EPA

Algerian president Abdelmadjid Tebboune announced on Monday the composition of his new government nearly three months after his landslide re-election for a second five-year term in September.

In a statement published on the official Algerian presidency website, Mr Tebboune said he had accepted on Monday the official resignation of his former government but decided to renew his confidence in Prime Minister Nadir Larbaoui and charged him with forming the new government.

Mr Larbaoui, 75, a former diplomat who has held the role of Algeria’s permanent representative to the UN, was first appointed Prime Minister on November 11, 2023, before which he was Mr Tebboune's chief of staff.

The newly appointed Algerian government is larger than the previous one, with 38 members including ministers of state, ministers, deputy ministers and secretaries of state.

Mr Tebboune decided to keep Foreign Minister Ahmed Attaf, Interior Minister Brahim Merad and Energy Minister Mohamed Arkab. The powerful acting army Chief of Staff, Said Chengriha, 79, will be a delegate minister for the Minister of Defence, a portfolio reserved for Mr Tebboune.

The reshuffle also included several current cabinet members being assigned new roles, the return of former government figures and the restructuring of some ministries.

Court of Algiers General Prosecutor Lotfi Boudjemaa, has been appointed Justice Minister, replacing Abderrachid Tabi. Mohamed Seghir Saadaoui has been given the role of National Education Minister, a cabinet post that Algeria considers critical as it tries to shift its educational system from heavily French-influenced curriculums towards an anglophone one.

The Trade Ministry has been split into two entities with the creation of the Ministry for Domestic Trade and Market Control, to be led by Tayeb Zitouni, and a Ministry for Foreign Trade and Export Promotion, which will be led by Mohamed Boukhari.

Two new foreign ministry positions have been also added with the appointment of Sofiane Chaib as Secretary of State for the National Community Abroad, and current Algerian ambassador to Burkina Faso Selma Mansouri as Secretary of State for African Affairs.