US rejects Algeria’s designation of Kabylia independence movement as ‘terrorist’

The United States has rejected the “terrorism” designation given by Algerian authorities to the MAK movement, which peacefully seeks an independent state in the Amazigh-speaking Kabylie region.

In 2023, Algeria also maintained domestic terrorism designations on the Movement for the Self-Determination of Kabylie and the Islamist movement Rachad.

“The United States considers Algeria’s concentration on these groups to be more political than security related, and neither appears to have committed what the United States defines as terrorist acts,” the US State Department said in its annual terrorism report.

Citing international and local human rights activists, including the UN, the report mentions that Algerian “authorities use antiterrorism laws and restrictive laws on freedom of expression and public assembly to detain political activists and critics of the government.”

The report however notes the existence, notably in southern Algeria, of terrorist groups such as Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and allied groups and ISIS’s Algeria branch, including the local group Jund al-Khilafah in Algeria.