Social media platforms in Algeria witnessed widespread interaction with a video clip documenting a combat demonstration exercise presented by an Algerian military during the annual graduation ceremony for the 2026 classes in the presence of President Abdelmadjid Tebboune.
The video showed the female soldier, nicknamed “the Lioness of Algeria,” performing combat maneuvers as part of a group demonstration involving a number of officer cadets. It then spread widely across various platforms, with users sharing the footage and commenting on the precision and discipline displayed during the demonstration. Others considered the scene to reflect the presence of women in various military activities and specialties.
This interaction came in the context of the graduation of the fifty-seventh batch of basic training, the nineteenth batch of joint basic military training, and the tenth batch of master’s degree officers at the Cherchell Military Academy “The late President Houari Boumediene”, which this year bore the name of the late President Liamine Zeroual.
According to a statement from the Ministry of National Defense, the ceremony included sports demonstrations in close combat, karate, kung fu and taekwondo, group sports movements with and without weapons, bodybuilding exercises, crossing fire obstacles, forming panels in the national colors, in addition to a demonstration combat exercise carried out by a mixed detachment of academy students.
The ceremony also included air shows performed by formations of fighter jets, as well as a live naval exercise that involved searching for and intercepting a suspicious vessel as part of a maritime interdiction operation, in addition to parachute jumping displays and the final military parade.
In his speech on the occasion, the Minister Delegate to the Minister of National Defense, Chief of Staff of the Army, Lieutenant General Said Chengriha, said that celebrating the graduation of new classes of officers represents a milestone to renew the commitment to continue training military human resources, recalling the historical legacy of the liberation revolution, and linking the course of military training to the values on which the National Liberation Army was founded.
Chengriha explained that the sons of the People’s National Army are continuing, “following in the footsteps of their illustrious ancestors,” their journey under the leadership of the President of the Republic, noting that they had, “in the recent past,” sacrificed everything to preserve the state, its republican system, and its democratic character.
He added that, after “great sacrifices”, they were able to defeat “barbaric terrorism”, eliminate its “foreign reference”, and thwart its “dark project”, which he said almost destroyed the pillars of the national state, were it not for the determined will of the men of the People’s National Army and the various security services.
The ceremony also included the graduating students taking the oath, before President Tebboune supervised the awarding of ranks and the handing out of certificates to the outstanding students. It was also approved to name the batch after the late President Liamine Zeroual, in the first military tribute to the president who passed away on March 28.
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