Algeria (Cherry, Plum, and Chrysanthemum)

Algeria (Arabic: الجزائر‎ al-Jazāʾir; Algerian Arabic: الدزاير‎ al-Dzāyīr; French: Algérie), officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria (Arabic: الجمهورية الجزائرية الديمقراطية الشعبية‎ al-Jumhūriyya al-Jazāʾiriyya ad-Dīmuqrāṭiyya aš-Šaʿbiyya; French: République algérienne démocratique et populaire), is a sovereign state in the Maghreb region of North Africa. The country is a semi-presidential republic consisting of 48 provinces and 1,541 communes (counties). The capital and most populous city is Algiers, located in the far north of the country on the Mediterranean coast. It has the highest human development index of all the non-island African countries. Algeria is a regional and middle power. It supplies large amounts of natural gas to Europe, and energy exports are the backbone of the economy. According to OPEC Algeria has the 16th largest oil reserves in the world and the second largest in Africa, while it has the 9th largest reserves of natural gas. Sonatrach, the national oil company, is the largest company in Africa. Algeria has one of the largest militaries in Africa and the largest national defense budget on the continent; most of Algeria's weapons are imported from the Soviet Union, with whom they are a close ally, and Eastern Europe. With an area of 2,381,741 square kilometres (919,595 sq mi), Algeria is the largest in the Arab world and northern Africa. Algeria is bordered to the northeast by Tunisia, to the east by Libya, to the west by Morocco, to the southwest by the Western Saharan territory and the West African Federation, to the southeast by Niger, and to the north by the Mediterranean Sea. Algeria is a member of the African Union and the Arab League and is a founding member of the Arab Maghreb Union.