International Journal on Criminology
AQIM ’ s Reaction to the Hirak : The Attempt to Recuperate
Thus , initially , the armed groups , themselves weakened , reacted little or
not at all to the appearance of the popular protest movement , Hirak , on
February 22 . It was not until the following March 10 that al-Annabi , the spokesman for AQIM , gave a form of support to the movement , considering it to be a step “ towards the exit of a dark tunnel .” In this speech , al-Annabi referred to former President Bouteflika as a mummy and stated that the country had been ruled by a gang of corrupt and tyrants . He gave his opinion and advocated the way forward for Algeria to become an Islamic emirate ruled by sharia law , 14 thus bringing his organization ’ s support to Hirak , al-Annabi placed AQIM in the same line as that adopted by al-Qaida in 2011 during the Arab Spring , a line also confirmed by al-Zawahiri from the end of April 2019 . The General Command of al-Qaeda issued a statement in April 2019 welcoming the fall of Bouteflika , described as a taghut ( miscreant ), as divine vengeance , and in Hirak , al-Qaeda welcomed “ the militancy and jihad of the people ,” which should continue until the complete fall of the regime . Thus , it can be said that these alignments , unsurprisingly , of Al-Qaeda and AQIM with Hirak , are ideologically in the continuity of those of 2011 – 2012 , and , a fortiori , within their strict limits , in that of a de facto cyclical alliance with Hirak , based on the common objective of overthrowing the regime . The establishment of an Islamic emirate , by means of a jihad , of one form or another , remains , beyond that , ideologically the final objective and is always envisaged . AQIM could also hope for a security vacuum or repression that would allow it to redeploy .
In this regard , the communiqué issued at the end of March 2019 is a good example . Indeed , it not only categorically denied information from the Algerian Ministry of National Defense ( DND ) that a terrorist cell planning attacks against Hirak demonstrators had been dismantled , but also reiterated its support for this movement . And it is with the same conformism that al-Annabi renewed , in an interview given in May 2019 to Wissam Nasr , a journalist from France 24 , his organization ’ s declarations of support for Hirak and its insistence on its non-violent nature , affirming that “ jihad could take many forms .”
Moreover , no attacks had taken place during this same period , with the exception of a skirmish in Boumerdès during which two soldiers were killed . In fact , for Salima Tlemçani , this absence of attacks by AQIM reflected its extreme weakness more than anything else . According to Akram Kherief , “ the armed groups are now in retreat , if not inactive . And many of their members are trying to return to civilian life under false identities following the collapse of the organisation in
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