A cold wind blows between Morocco and Algeria.
On Wednesday, the Algerian presidency announced that it would “review” its relations with Rabat and intensify “security controls at the western borders”, due to “incessant hostile acts”.
Explanations.
What happened ?
During an extraordinary meeting of the Algerian High Security Council, devoted to the forest fires which ravaged the north of the country and chaired by the Head of State, Algeria decided to "review" its relations with its neighbor Moroccan.
In a press release issued on Wednesday, the presidency specifies that this choice was made because of "the incessant hostile acts perpetrated by Morocco against Algeria".
No measure on the implications of this review of relations has been disclosed.
Algiers only explained that "security controls at the western borders" would intensify.
Morocco did not react immediately.
What does this have to do with fires?
For more than a week, northern Algeria was ravaged by several forest fires, all of which were extinguished.
But before that, the flames had destroyed tens of thousands of hectares of forests and killed more than 90 people, including 33 soldiers.
Read alsoFires in Algeria: 5 minutes to understand the murderous toll in Kabylia
Quickly, Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune asserted that the majority of the fires were of criminal origin. According to the police, the investigation would have revealed that the Movement for the Self-Determination of Kabylia (MAK), an organization illegal in Algeria and described as a "terrorist network", was involved, "by admission. of its arrested members ”.
However, according to the Algerian presidency, the organization "receives the support and assistance of foreign parties, at the head of which Morocco (...)".
This is only an allegation, but Morocco has already officially supported the hypothesis of the independence of Kabylia.
Last July, the Moroccan ambassador to the UN passed a note during an international meeting in which he considered that “the valiant Kabyle people deserve, more than any other, to fully enjoy their right to freedom. 'self-determination'.
When do the tensions go back?
The problem is in fact much deeper and the link with the fires is only "the symptom of strained relations for many years", comments Haoues Seniguer, lecturer in political science at Sciences-po Lyon and researcher at the ENS. There was first the War of the Sands, in 1963, about the borders between the two countries, "which left traces", specifies the researcher.
In the 1970s, the question of Western Sahara was added. “When Spain, which was colonizing this country, withdrew, Morocco claimed the territory. But Algeria supported the movement of the Saharawi Polisario Front, which claimed the independence of Western Sahara, ”recalls M'hamed Oualdi, professor at the history center of Sciences-po Paris. From now on, the kingdom of Morocco controls a very large part of it. But Algerian officials have repeatedly affirmed their explicit support for the separatists. In 2018 again, the president of the Algerian Council of the Nation (upper house of Parliament) reiterated, to the leader of the Polisario Front, the country's “constant” support.
If the question of Western Sahara is a source of tension, it is because the two countries have an opposite vision: “On the one hand, Morocco - like Tunisia - has supported Algeria in its struggle for independence and thought that in return there would be a form of solidarity and no opposition to Moroccan claims concerning Western Sahara.
On the other hand, Algeria recognizes itself in the fight of the Saharawis for their independence, which it associates with that which it led at the time of decolonization ”, adds the professor.
Added to this is the fact "that with the surface area and the wealth of the Sahrawi territories, the kingdom of Morocco can appear as a rival power of Algeria in the Maghreb", continues M'hamed Oualdi.
Are there internal causes?
If it is essentially about "state tensions" in particular linked to "a struggle for influence", as described by Haoues Seniguer, we must not forget that "Algeria is experiencing a strong period of social protest".
Since February 2019, the Hirak movement has been illustrated by weekly demonstrations.
And if the Covid-19 pandemic has put the brakes on the actions of Algerian protesters, the social and political situation is nonetheless unstable.
Faced with this, the government's response "takes the form of a relic of nationalism, showing that the country holds its own against Morocco", comments the researcher.
Historically, "the Algerian power has played a lot on this fiber," he continues.
And he still does today.
