Every summer, the same images return: mountains in flames, forests reduced to ashes, and villages surrounded by fire.
Faced with this tragedy, the Algerian regime once again demonstrates its total lack of will to protect Kabylie.
I express my deepest solidarity with all the victims, the grieving families, the mobilized citizens, the volunteers, the villagers, and all those risking their lives to defend their land, often with meager resources.
For many Kabyles, this succession of fires, combined with the persistent inaction of the Algerian colonial authorities, can no longer be viewed as mere fate. It is part of what many interpret as a policy aimed at making Kabylie unlivable, in order to gradually push the Kabyle people to abandon their ancestral land. The Kabyle population links these criminal fires to the “Zero Kabyle” project, sponsored by the Algerian colonial regime.
The file on the devastating fires of the summer of 2021, to which the assassination of Djamel Bensmaïl is added, is in our hands. It contains videos, photographs, and numerous testimonies. We will continue to work with determination so that the full truth about these events is brought to light and responsibilities are established. We will not let go.
But those who think that burning trees is enough to uproot a people are gravely mistaken.
While the Gulf countries have demonstrated that it is possible, through will and intelligence, to make the desert bloom, the Algerian regime seems to know only how to turn fertile land into a desert. The Kabyle people, however, will know how to reverse this logic.
The day Kabylie is free to decide, it will replant its forests, protect its mountains, restore its villages, and bring new life to this land that has nourished so many generations.
You can burn everything, except the Kabyle people’s love for their land. Kabylie will be reborn, greener, stronger, and more prosperous than ever.
Karim ACHAB