Reports from France indicate that the very active militancy of several small Kabyle groups is beginning to arouse the serious concern of the Algerian authorities. The intelligence services have discreetly contacted their French counterparts to demand more cooperation and information exchanges on the profiles and activities prepared by Kabyle independence activists in France. In particular, they are worried by the actions and influence of the Mouvement pour l’autonomie de la Kabylie (MAK). They fear a strengthening of the influence and capacity for action of these exiled groups whose separatist ideology could ‘sow discord’ in Kabylia. This fear is not only now very real, but wholly ironic, because the MAK ‘terrorist threat’ was created entirely by the Algerian intelligence services themselves in the spring and early summer of 2021. 

How this little known and wholly marginalised group came to prominence in the Algerian media almost exactly two years ago was explained in Algeria Politics & Security – 04.05.21. The June 2021 legislative elections were about to be massively boycotted because of the peaceful Hirak rebellion. Therefore, in order to prepare for their last-minute postponement or cancellation, the intelligence services contrived a fabricated terrorist threat from the little known and largely irrelevant MAK. The rest, as we now know, is history: the MAK, along with the Rached organisation, has been demonised as being an existential threat to the regime. It has used this false designation to arrest and detain thousands of Kabyles, the main supporters of the Hirak rebellion, on the spurious grounds that they belong to the MAK ‘terrorist organisation.’

The result of this targeted ‘state terrorism’ in Kabylie — including the forest fires of 2021 that killed some 250 residents of Kabylia — has further turned Kabyles against the regime and given the MAK, a virtually moribund organisation two years ago, an ideological platform. Two years ago, few Kabyles took separatism seriously but the MAK’s ideology has now gained real strength in Kabylia. 

Now, a year or so before the 2024 presidential elections, the security services fear that overseas Kabyle separatists have the logistical and financial means to organise clandestine operations in the regions of Tizi-Ouzou, Béjaïa or Bouïra. There is little doubt that the Kabyle diaspora, especially its militants, now has the power to capitalise on the sympathy and empathy of a much wider Kabyle population to be receptive to the spread of separatist and radical ideas. Whether French intelligence services will be prepared to help in battening down on Kabyle activists is questionable because, in practical terms, it is difficult to see what they can reasonably do. The regime, under both Gaïd Salah and Tebboune, has demonised Kabylia to such an extent that the 2024 presidential elections are already being seen by the security services as the Kabyles’ time of reckoning. The regime has managed to turn Kabylia into a very real danger that could threaten Algeria’s stability.