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Algeria
Population: 29.8 million (1997) Life expectancy: 66 years Infant mortality rate: 4.4% Illiteracy: 47% (1990 )	Religions: Islamic Independence: 5 July 1962 (from France) GDP per capita: US$ 1,700

Spiritan presence: 2 professed members.

We have been in this predominantly Moslem country, with a population of around 30 million, since 1901. Spiritans, along with the Algerian Church, have had to re-adjust their type of presence several times over the last 20 years, in the wake of social and religious changes. Each time this presence has become more "discrete". At present it consists of modest initiatives of human development (sewing workshops, libraries, health care...), informal friendly contacts, and pastoral service to the tiny Christian communities, which are often made up of several denominations.

The insecurity coming from the wave of assassinations which has killed more than 100,000 people since 1993 (including 20 Christian religious between 1994 and 1996), has led to a big fall in the number of foreign religious. The number of Spiritans has dropped from 6 to 2 in two years. But there are signs that seem to indicate this Christian presence, which continues courageously despite everything, is bringing a clearer picture of the true sense of evangelical mission to the Algerian Moslems.

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