Thousands march in Paris demanding end to Algerian occupation of Kabylie region

Thousands marched on January 14 to renew their call for an independent Kabylie and denounce the atrocities and rights violations of the Algerian regime there.

The celebration of the Amazigh year 2974 took place in the Kabylie region in a gloomy atmosphere amid an intensifying crackdown on the kabylie people under the military regime.

The restive Kabylie region has for long been the hotbed of demands for a democratic Algeria. But decades of marginalization and persecution led to the emergence of an independence movement or MAK, whose leadership is exiled mostly in France.

The MAK movement, a peaceful independence group, has been designated by the Algerian regime as a terrorist organization, a pretext to silence independence advocates in the Amazigh speaking region.

Protesters in Paris chanted pro-independence slogans and hoisted flags of the Kabylie nation.

At least 49 Kabyle people were sentenced to death, including MAK leader Ferhat Mhenni, following wildfires that ravaged the Kabylie region in 2022. The Algerian regime banned 100,000 Kabylians from leaving abroad, in a series of repressive measures denounced by global rights groups.

The march was largely ignored by pro-establishment French media, including the AFP, a fact indicating a connivance between Paris and Algiers against Tizi Ouzzou and the Kabyle people.

The US state department 2023 terrorism report criticized the Algerian regime for using terrorism to silence dissent.

“In 2021 Algerian authorities targeted more frequently the Berber separatist Movement for the Self-Determination of Kabylie and the Islamist movement Rachad, which the government designated as terrorist organizations in May. The United States considers these designations more political than security focused, as both groups are highly critical of the government and do not appear to have committed what the United States defines as terrorist acts,” the report said.