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Algeria
Gendarmerie Nationale
The Gendarmerie Nationale serves as the main rural police force.
It was commanded in 1993 by Major General Abbas Ghezaiel, who
reported directly to the minister of national defense. In 1993
gendarmerie personnel constituted a total force of 35,000. Although
generally regarded as a versatile and competent paramilitary force,
the gendarmerie since 1988 has been severely tested in dealing
with civil disorder. It frequently has lacked sufficient manpower
at the scene of disorder and its units have been inadequately
trained and equipped for riot control. The gendarmerie, however,
has demonstrated the ability to root out terrorist groups operating
from mountain hideouts.
The gendarmerie is responsible for maintaining law and order
in villages, towns, and rural areas; providing security surveillance
over local inhabitants; and representing government authority
in remote regions, especially where tensions and conflicts have
occurred in the past. The gendarmerie is organized in battalions,
whose component companies and platoons are dispersed to individual
communities and desert outposts. Its regional headquarters are
in the same cities as the six military regional headquarters;
it has subdivisions in the forty-eight wilayat. A highly
mobile force, the gendarmerie possesses a modern communications
system connecting its various units with one another and with
the army. Gendarmerie equipment includes light armored weapons
and transport and patrol vehicles. The force in 1993 had forty-four
Panhard armored personnel carriers, fifty Fahd armored personnel
carriers, and twenty-eight Mi-2 light helicopters. In addition
to utilizing training provided by the French since independence,
the gendarmerie operates its own schools for introductory and
advanced studies. The gendarmerie's main training center is at
Sidi Bel Abbes, the former headquarters of France's Foreign Legion.
The academy for officers is at Isser, about 150 kilometers east
of Algiers.
Data as of December 1993
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