ALGIERS, Algeria — Algeria’s president has announced plans to import a staggering one million sheep ahead of this year’s Eid al-Adha, the Muslim holiday during which families worldwide purchase livestock for sacrifice.
President Abdelmadjid Tebboune on Sunday instructed his ministers to launch plans for the massive livestock import effort to stabilize costs and meet soaring demand.
The plan is the latest in a series of measures designed to ease public frustration over rising costs and the military-backed government’s uncompromising grip on power.
It builds on previous efforts to flood markets with food staples throughout Islam’s holy month of Ramadan. Yet its scale has few parallels.
North Africa is enduring its seventh consecutive year of extreme heat and below-average rainfall. The record drought has shrunk harvests and driven up the price of animal feed needed to raise livestock, including in the northern Algerian highlands where breeders raise sheep revered by the population for their quality.
Algeria’s government has traditionally played a dominant role in the economy and in the past imported livestock in small quantities to ensure affordable options for low-income citizens. Last year, it facilitated the sale of 100,000 sheep in state-run stores, sourcing them from Argentina, Australia, Brazil and Spain.
Eid al-Adha, which takes place this year in early June, is an annual “feast of sacrifice” in which Muslims slaughter sheep to honor a passage of the Quran in which the prophet Ibrahim