Morocco’s ambassador to the UN, Omar Hilale renewed on Monday comments on the self-determination of Algeria Kabyle people, denounced by Algeria earlier this month as one of the reasons for cutting ties.
“The Kabyle people, which existed long before the creation of the Algerian state, also has the right to self-determine,” said Hilale during the C24 seminar for the Caribbean in Dominica, spatting with his Algerian colleague over the 45 years long Sahara conflict.
Algeria had accused Morocco of being complicit in the deadly forest fires by supporting independence movements MAK and Rachad.
Prior to severing ties, Algeria recalled its ambassador in Morocco for consultations over Hilale’s calls for the self-determination of Algeria’s Kabylie region.
Relations between Morocco and Algeria have been fraught in the past decades, mainly over the territory disputed by the Polisario Front, an Algerian-backed separatist movement.
Hilale said the self-determination of the populations of the Sahara has been completed, citing the example of Sahrawi participation in elections, which he says reaches more than 65% of the national tally, “which is by no means the case with the participation of 0.1 % in Kabylia, Algeria.”
Head of govermnet, Saad Eddine El Othmani in an interview with Hespress said comments made by Hilale on self-determination of the Algerian Kabyle were a ‘reaction’ and not a position of the state.
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