ALGIERS, Algeria — As Algerians fast, pray and gather for the holy month of Ramadan, a worry lurks in many minds: how to afford the holiday feasts this year.

In addition to its religious significance for billions of Muslims, Ramadan also means tables laden with rich and varied meals eaten after the muezzin’s call to break the fast at sunset.

Today, these feasts come at a cost beyond the reach of many Algerians, whose purchasing power has declined in recent years despite Algeria’s gas and oil riches, pushing more and more people below the poverty line.

Food prices have soared, and tensions at marketplaces now occasionally erupt into violence.

After Algeria was convulsed by nationwide protests in 2019, the government became concerned about broader social unrest and promised economic aid.

“In the 1970s, we didn’t earn much, but we could stock up for Ramadan and afford fresh meat, fruit, and vegetables,” Ahmed Messai, a retired railway worker, told The Associated Press at the Clauzel market in central Algiers.

On the ground floor of the market, the beating heart of commercial life in the Algerian capital, merchants’ stalls are well stocked with fruit and vegetables, displayed with enticing artistry.

But as Ramadan approached, prices climbed.

An older woman, clutching her traditional white haik garment, lamented onion prices going from 45 dinars per kilo to 100 dinars (35 cents to 77 cents) in two days. She hurled insults at an impassive vendor as he talked to her about profit margins. Carrots sell for 150 dinars per kilo, peppers 200 dinars and green beans 550 dinars.

The woman’s shopping basket remained empty.

The Algerian government has cracked down on Ramadan speculators, to little effect. At a special recent Cabinet discussion of Ramadan food supplies, President Abdelmadjid Tebboune vowed, “all conditions must be guaranteed to allow citizens to spend the holy month in perfect peace and without worry.”

Among his promises were government imports of 144,000 sheep and 46,000 cattle to make meat more accessible for Ramadan meals. Locally sourced mutton from Algeria’s High Plateaus, known for its flavor and aroma, as well as young cattle from the Kabyle mountains, have become prohibitively expensive even for middle-income professionals.

Civil society plays a key role in helping struggling families during Ramadan. Restaurant owners transform their establishments into soup kitchens or “mercy restaurants” serving free meals.

“It’s a good mechanism for solidarity and civic awareness,” said academic Hocine Zairar, “but the proliferation of this type of restaurant says something serious about our society: how poverty is gaining ground in our country.”

One of the largest mercy restaurant operations in Algiers is run across different neighborhoods by the Algerian Red Crescent. People fill rows of long tables inside a huge tent in a central square to break their fast. “The atmosphere is family-friendly and we serve up to 800 meals a day,” said Nour el-Houda Remdani, one of the organizers, as she walked between the rows of diners benefiting from the provisions.

Mercy restaurants used to be frequented mainly by singles, people without housing or travelers. But in recent years, entire families now fill these makeshift eateries.

Even the president acknowledged profound economic shifts in recent years.

“The middle class, once the pride of Algeria, is now being decimated by the crisis,” Tebboune said in an interview on Algerian television earlier this month.

Tebboune has also promised an increase in the minimum wage from 20,000 to 24,000 dinars, an increase in retirement pensions of 5 to 10%, and an increase in unemployment benefits for university graduates, from 15,000 to 18,000 dinars.

The average salary in Algeria is 42,800 dinars, the equivalent of approximately $330 according to the official exchange rate, and less than $235 on the informal market.

Professor Redouane Boudjema of the Institute of Journalism in Algiers said the government’s Ramadan aid measures represented an effort to ensure “social peace” and “absorb political anger stemming from restrictions on civil and trade union freedoms.”