ConflictBarometer_2016

MIDDLE EAST AND MAGHREB
ALGERIA (OPPOSITION)
Intensity: 3 | Change: | Start: 2011
ALGERIA, MALI ET AL. (AQIM ET AL.)
Intensity: 3 | Change: | Start: 1998
Conflict parties:
Conflict items:
opposition groups vs. government
system/ideology
The violent crisis over the orientation of the political sys-tem
between various opposition groups and the government
continued. On January 1, tens of thousands of protesters
attended the funeral of Hocine Ait Ahmed, founder of the
opposition party Socialist Forces Front (FFS), in the town of
Ait Yahia, Tizi Ouzou province. The protesters demanded
reforms and threw stones at Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal,
forcing him to leave the site. Throughout the year, violent
protests against corruption in politics and the socioeconomic
conditions were reported. For instance on January 16,
clashes broke out in Oued El Ma municipality, Batna
province. Protesters closed several roads with burning
barricades, and set a municipality building on fire. The riots
were triggered by the construction of a solar energy plant on
private agricul-tural land, and lasted several days.
On March 21 and 22 n the capital Algiers, police violently
dispersed a demonstration of teachers who were demanding
an improvement of job security . Reportedly, the police assaulted
protesters, injured at least two, and arrested several
others. After the so-called Panama Papers revealed crimes
committed by politicians, hundreds of workers participated
in a demonstration of the Socialist Workers Party (PST) and
the National Autonomous Union of Public Administration Personnel
(SNAPAP) in the city of Bejaia, Bejaia province, on May
1, demanding an investigation.
On May 25, the court of Laghouat city, Laghouat province,
sentenced labor rights lawyer Bekacem Khencha to six
months in prison for publicly criticizing the imprisonment
of a colleague. The same month, the director of the television
channel KBC, Mehdi Benaissa, his producer Ryad Hartouf, and
Mounia Nedjai from the Ministry of Culture were arrested for
broadcasting a satirical television show. On July 8, more than
100 people gathered in Oran city, Oran province, protesting
against state repression and calling for the immediate release
of Benaissa.
Police violently dispersed a protest against pension reforms
in Algiers on November 27, injuring several trade unionists.
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Conflict parties:
Conflict items:
AQIM, Ansar al-Sharia, Uqba ibn Nafi
Brigade, al-Mourabitoun, MUJAO,
Blood Signatories, Ansar al-Din, MLF
vs. Niger, Morocco, Mauritania, Mali,
Côte d'Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Algeria,
Tunisia
system/ideology
INTRODUCTION
The conflict over the orientation of the international system
between al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and its affiliates,
such as the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West
Africa (MUJAO), al-Mourabitoun as well as various other Islamist
militant groups, on the one hand, and Algeria, Mali as
well as other governments, on the other, de-escalated to a
violent crisis.
In 1998, AQIM had emerged in Algeria under its previous
name Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC). The
group had officially joined the transnational al-Qaeda network
in 2006. A fierce counter-terrorism strategy applied by
the Algerian government had forced AQIM to gradually withdraw
to neighboring countries in the Sahel. Although AQIM
and its affiliates had still been present in Algeria, Tunisia,
Morocco, and Mauritania, they had shifted their operational
focus to Mali.
From the early 2000s onwards, AQIM members had reportedly
married into communities in northern Mali, thereby gaining
a foothold in the region and facilitating the recruitment
of local personnel. In early 2012, AQIM, MUJAO, and the
Malian-based Islamist group Ansar al-Din together with the
Tuareg group National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad
(MNLA) had attempted to establish an independent state
of Azawad comprising the three northern Malian regions of
Kidal, Gao, and Timbuktu. This had been followed by clashes
between MNLA and the Islamist groups in May 2012 after
the latter had proclaimed the region an Islamic caliphate. In
2013, international forces had intervened, strongly curtailing
the Islamist groups' power in the country. Furthermore, AQIM
activities had spread to neighboring Niger in 2008, when the
group had started a series of abductions in the country.
The expansion of the so-called Islamic State (IS) to Algeria in
2014 and Tunisia in 2015 had posed a further threat to AQIM
in its region of origin [→ Syria, Iraq et al. (IS)]. In the last two
years, IS had increasingly succeeded to recruit AQIM fighters
and had challenged its regional hold. (chf, jas)
ALGERIA
Government forces frequently targeted Islamist fighters in
the northern and central provinces where both AQIM and IS
fighters were present [→ Syria, Iraq et al. (IS)]. According to
a military source, approx. 300 insurgents were active during
May this year. About 230 of them belonged to AQIM who,
like IS, was mainly present in the Kabylia region and in the
provinces of Tipaza, Médéa, and Ain Defla. AQIM's capacity to
conduct attacks against the Algerian People's National Army
173