Algeria alleges foreign plot to sabotage upcoming election
More turbulence for Algeria’s presidential election set for September 7th as the Algerian Ministry of Defence accused “hostile foreign intelligence services” of plotting to conduct “terrorist operations” in the country via the Movement for the Self Determination of Kabyle (MAK) by sabotaging the upcoming vote, reported Middle East Monitor and agencies on August 15th.
The ministry provided photographs of two people involved in the plot with the statement. Weapons and ammunition were also seized whilst being smuggled “smuggled into the country via a foreign ship that arrived in the province of Bejaia” from Marseille.
Algeria’s joint security services reportedly arrested a man by the name of Zaidi Moussa and his wife at the port of Bejaia on August 4th. The suspect was said to have multiple “firearms and ammunition” along with a “sum of hard currency and other items” that were concealed within a vehicle that arrived on the ship.
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Moussa is said to have confessed his involvement with MAK whilst under investigation. The president of the Berber separatist movement MAK, Ferhat Mehenni, met members of the British government in June along with Lord Stuart Polak, the honorary president of Conservative Friends of Israel.
The ministry stated that “Moussa has also confessed that the seized weapons had been purchased and smuggled into Algeria by the active MAK cells in France”.
“The plan was to transport these weapons, then distribute them to members of secret MAK cells to use them in potential terrorist operations.”
Foreign intelligence services hostile to Algeria are also implicated in the operation that aims to destabilise security to impede the smooth running of the presidential election, according to a confession made by the accused suspects.
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The outskirts of Bejaia have also seen Algeria security services arrest 19 other members of the terrorist network and seize a large quantity of firearms from an unlicensed weapons repair workshop. The 21 suspects now wait for investigation procedures to be initiated by judicial authorities.
The Movement for the Self Determination of Kabyle was formed during the “Black Spring” protests in Algeria in 2001, where demonstrators spoke out against the cultural marginalisation of Berber people in the country following the killing of a young Kabyle student under custody of the gendarmerie.
The MAK was designated as a terrorist organisation by the Algerian government in 2021 following claims that the separatist organisation was planting car bombs.
Middle East Monitor and agencies
