Algeria: Score-settling within military regime puts country’s stability at risk

What if the recent escalation against Morocco is but another curtain used by the Algerian opaque regime to derail attention from the brutal score settling between its clans?

Since the death of General Gaid Salah and the return of the Algerian war influential general Khaled Nezzar and the so called “God of Algeria” known as General Toufik, a brutal shake off has taken place in the military apparatus.

Gaid Salah has condemned both Nezzar and Toufik. The first run away to exile and the second was thrown in jail.

But after the death of Gaid Salah, Nezzar and Toufik took their vendetta sending Salah allies in the army to jail or to forced retirement. News of obscure deaths of other army commanders close to Salah also abounded.

Nezzar and Toufik are believed to be the masterminds of Algeria’s military coup in 1990s that prevented Islamists from winning elections and plunged the country into a savage civil war that left at least 200,000 people dead.

The involvement of the army in killing civilians is no secret and defectors have told abhorrent stories of how the brutal generals perpetrated massacres to discredit Islamist opponents.

General Chengriha, who appears to be the kingmaker of the Algerian army, is but a façade of the deep army who pulls the strings of the Algerian state.

Many observers believe that Tebboune is held hostage in this cruel military regime which is using him as a civilian façade and a disposable scapegoat. But the Algerian people and the world are aware of this blame game.

Macron recently stated without ambiguity that Tebboune is not a real president but a civilian façade of a cruel military-political regime.

In the midst of this regime instability, Algeria is punching above its economic and political weight going as far as to threaten regional peace by uncalculated provocations and warmongering against its well-off neighbor.

Yet, such diplomatic agitation is only hiding the fact of a collapsing regime controlled by an old-minded and blood-thirsty generation that is responsible for all Algeria’s economic and social woes.