This month renewed tension erupted with Algeria after Morocco’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Omar Hilale (b.1951), made a series of controversial comments during a virtual meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement on 13 July. Referring to Algeria’s Amazigh (a.k.a. Berber) population, he called for the, ‘right of self-determination for the people living in the Kabylie region.’ He also asserted that the, ‘heroic Kabyle people, who suffer from the longest foreign occupation, deserve to enjoy self-determination.’

Hilale’s comments were in response to an intervention by Algeria’s newly reappointed and highly experienced Foreign Minister, Ramtane Lamamra. Although the discussions at the meeting were meant to focus on a range of issues affecting member states, including the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Lamamra used the occasion to veer from the agenda and allege that the military conflict in the disputed Western Sahara had resumed. Hilale hit back, denying that there was any conflict in the territory and stating that the Western Sahara was quiet. He then went much further and deliberately raised the highly sensitive Kabyle issue, in a move that stunned and infuriated the Algerians. 

The latter have long been struggling with demands for autonomy and self-rule in the Kabylia region of north-eastern Algeria. These demands have been articulated since 2001 by the Mouvement pour l’autodétermination de la Kabylie (MAK) which is a relatively small and radical fringe organisation which emerged out of protests that shook the Kabylie region at the time. Even though there are many, including in Kabylia itself, who dislike the MAK’s demand for self-rule, it has more support among both the Kabyle youth and in the Kabyle diaspora. 

Although it could easily be crushed, the MAK is useful for the Algerian regime. It is trying to quell support for the huge peaceful Hirak movement — which until the COVID-19 pandemic had held huge weekly demonstrations for over two years — by claiming that it is led by both the MAK and the Europe-based Rachad opposition movement. Although they are certainly not, it has therefore proscribed both as terrorist organisations. 

For Morocco to publicly express its support for Kabylie self-determination at this time could not be more provocative. This is because this month’s deadly forest fires — especially in the Kabylie region — and the growing water shortage crisis are fuelling a growing sense of anger which is becoming increasingly prevalent throughout most of the country (see Algeria Politics & Security for further details).