The Algerian Ministry of Defense announced on Sunday the dismantling of a cell of separatist militants of the Movement for the Autonomy of Kabylia (MAK) who were planning attacks against the marches of the popular protest movement of Hirak.
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This "
criminal cell
", dismantled last month is "
composed of supporters of the separatist movement MAK
", an organization banned in Algeria, according to the Ministry of National Defense (MDN). Its members are "
involved in the planning of attacks and criminal acts during marches and popular rallies in several regions of the country,
" he said in a statement. Weapons of war and explosives were seized during this operation "
carried out at the end of March by the security services
", adds the press release which reported a "
dangerous conspiracy targeting the country, fomented
" by the MAK.
On March 30, the Azazga prosecutor's office (northeast) announced the arrest of five people suspected of planning "
terrorist
"
actions
in Tizi Ouzou and Béjaïa, in Kabylia, during the weekly Hirak demonstrations, but without giving reference to their links with the MAK, a pet peeve of the regime.
According to the DND, the confession of a former member of the MAK, H. Nourredine, revealed the existence of a "
perfidious criminal plan to carry out these attacks to exploit, then, the images in their subversive campaigns and to implore the 'foreign intervention in the internal affairs of the country
'.
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Born in February 2019 from the massive rejection of a fifth term of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, the Hirak calls for a radical change in
the
political
"
system
" in place since independence in 1962. He is today accused by the authorities of being infiltrated by activists of the Islamo-conservative Rachad movement and activists of the MAK, who would seek to draw the Hirak into the violent confrontation, according to the authorities.
