News of the Kabyle marchers who are going to walk from Brittany, France, to Geneva, to the UN headquarters, to raise awareness of the tragedy of the Kabyle people held hostage by the Algerian terrorist state. Through the window of a Breton newspaper, Poher.fr, we will be following these marchers in a peaceful and silent struggle.

880 km in 26 days in the name of freedom of opinion and the Kabyles.

Since the beginning of September, activists for the cause of the Kabyles in Algeria have been marching from central Brittany to Switzerland, including Nassim Mebarki, a shopkeeper in Châteauneuf. The 880-kilometre march should take them 26 days.

Our initiative is a human rights march towards the imprisoned Kabyles, simply to have a different voice from the powers that be’, explains Nassim Mebarki, a butcher from Châteauneuf-du-Faou. People of all ages and sexes are kidnapped and tortured without charge, leaving their families without news. Since the reform of the Algerian Penal Code, there have been 13,000 convictions and even 38 people sentenced to death. We need to publicise our march to draw the attention of the authorities’.
With its reputation for rebellion, Kabylia is a region of Algeria with a strong identity. A Berber language is spoken there, but its use is restricted by the Algerian central government, which is trying to impose the Arabic language. The Kabyles regularly clash with the central authorities, who sometimes crack down ferociously.

European headquarters of the UN

Nassim Mebarki and his fellow travellers, Laounes Fettis, Mohammed Said Idri, Nadia Sewwaman and Ferhat Nait El Djoudi, set off for Switzerland on the morning of Monday 2 September, after gathering at the Place de la Résistance in Châteauneuf-du-Faou.
This 26-day march of solidarity will end at the European headquarters of the UN in Geneva, ‘where we will be joining a number of compatriots and supporters, all of whom are keen to defend Kabylia and the freedom of expression of its inhabitants’.
The Châteauneuf businessman adds: ‘We can’t even enter our home region. If we don’t, it’s impossible to get out; any gathering there is forbidden, three people talking and you’re arrested.
Like his friends, he wears a T-shirt bearing the faces of imprisoned people: ‘We’ve been preparing this march for two months. It’s our way of denouncing an inhuman situation.

Algeria denounced

They all strongly denounce the 2021 reform of the Algerian penal code, particularly article 87-bis, which they want to see abolished, ‘under which any opponent of the Algerian government, even a pacifist, is classified as a terrorist. This article is contradictory, almost illegal, in relation to the Constitution’, says Ferhat Nait El Djoudi, a member, like Nadia Sewwaman, of Aza-Rouge solidaire.
‘Our demands are shared by a very large number of Kabyle citizens, even if they cannot or do not dare to express themselves for fear of reprisals’, says Nassim Mebarki. In Geneva, many of them will be making their voices heard at the end of September.
 Le Poher.fr