The Lyon forward netted twice in each half and the other
scorers for the Desert Foxes were Ramy Bensebaini, Baghdad Bounedjah, captain
Riyad Mahrez and Ramiz Zerrouki.
Former Leicester City player Slimani took his national team
goal tally to 36, matching the record of retired Abdelhafid Tasfaout.
Slimani and Zerrouki were promoted by coach Djamel Belmadi
in the only changes from the team that beat Senegal 1-0 in the 2019 Africa Cup
of Nations final in Cairo.
Victory stretched the African record for an unbeaten run by
a national team to 28 matches with Algeria last losing away to Benin in October
2018.
Djibouti began the match as rank outsiders, lying 152 places
below Algeria in the world rankings, and had defender Batio Mohamed Youssouf
sent off midway through the first half having conceded once.
Burkina Faso, widely regarded as the only threat to Algeria,
scored twice within three minutes through Lassina Traore and Mohamed Konate to
defeat Niger 2-0 in Moroccan city Marrakesh.
Niger had to play the home fixture at a neutral venue
because they are among eight countries, including Burkina Faso, whose stadiums
were declared unfit to host World Cup fixtures.
Meanwhile, goals from Nayef Aguerd and Abuaagla Ahmed, who
put the ball into his own net, earned Group I favourites a 2-0 win over Sudan
in Rabat.
Collecting maximum points took the Moroccans to the top of
the table, two points ahead of Guinea and Guinea-Bissau, who drew on Wednesday.
Democratic Republic of Congo, who are among the 10 top
seeds, could only draw 1-1 at home to Tanzania in Group J in the southern city
of Lubumbashi.
Recalled Mbokani scores
Appearing for the Congolese after a three-year absence,
35-year-old Dieumerci Mbokani scored after 23 minutes for a country that
featured at the 1974 World Cup when called Zaire.
But the lead lasted just 13 minutes before Simon Msuva
scored his second goal of the qualifying campaign to equalise, having netted in
a preliminary match.
The stalemate allowed Benin to become leaders of the section
a few hours later thanks to a 1-0 victory over Madagascar in Antananarivo.
Former English Premier League forward Steve Mounie scored
the match-winner midway through the first half to give Benin a lift after
recently failing to qualify for the upcoming Africa Cup of Nations.
Charles Hambira scored for both sides as Namibia and Congo
Brazzaville drew 1-1 in Group H, which two-time World Cup qualifiers Senegal
lead after defeating Togo on Wednesday.
The centre-back headed in a Deon Hotto free-kick during the
opening half, but had the misfortune of seeing a rebound off the post strike
him and trickle into the Namibian net after half-time.
Namibia hosted the match in Soweto on the outskirts of
Johannesburg because no stadium in Windhoek met international standards.
A much anticipated east African showdown in Group E between
Kenya and Uganda failed to meet expectations and ended in a dour 0-0 deadlock,
leaving Mali first after a win over Rwanda the previous day.
Kenyan Hassan Abdallah should have done better with an early
header, that ended well off target, and Ugandan Joseph Ochaya became so
frustrated that he attempted to score from near the centre circle.
Matchday 1 will be completed on Friday with seven more
matches, including Nigeria hosting Liberia in Lagos and South Africa
confronting neighbours Zimbabwe in Harare.