Special to WorldTribune.com

CAIRO — Algeria faces the prospect of a tribal revolt in the south.

Algerian sources said powerful non-Arab tribes in the southern region were demanding autonomy amid accusations that the central government failed to provide basic services.

They said the tribes were attacking police in the southern Sahara Desert town of Ghardaia near the border with Mali that has left scores of people dead and wounded.

“We have been subjected to the worst kind of exploitation,” a tribal source said.

In late January, the Al Mizabeyen tribe appealed to the United Nations for protection from the Algerian regime. The Berber tribe said the regime was using a rival group, Al Hanbah, to attack Al Mizabeyen and steal its property.

Al Mizabeyen was identified as representing some 800,000 Berbers in southern Algeria. The tribe speaks Tamazight rather than Arabic and is linked to neighboring Mali.

“They are suppressing the Amazigh [Berber] people in Ghardaia, trying to
blur their identity and practice racial discrimination,” the letter to UN secretary-general Ban Ki-Moon said. “They are practicing a deliberate policy of ethnic cleansing.”

Officials said some of the Berbers were believed linked to operations of
Al Qaida Organization in the Islamic Maghreb. They said Berbers were
suspected of providing haven for thousands of Al Qaida and allied fighters
who fled Mali for Algeria in 2013.

In January 2014, clashes between Berbers and security forces were said
to have intensified, with at least 60 arrested. Algiers has sent
representatives to help mediate the end of the fighting and examine Berber demands.

  Al Mizabeyen, Ban Ki-Moon, Berber tribes with Al Qaida ties in southern Algeria near Mali threaten revolt, Ghardaia, Sahara Desert