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    • Main contributor: Dr. David Heffernan
    The flag of the Islamic Salvation Front

    The Algerian Civil War (1992–2002) was a long-running civil war in Algeria in the Maghreb in North Africa. The war came about owing to the rise of radical Islamic groups within Algeria during the 1970s and 1980s as dissatisfaction with the much more secular Front de Libération Nationale (FLN) or National Liberation Front that had led the war of independence against France in the 1950s and early 1960s grew. The primary Islamic group that launched the insurgency against the government was the Islamic Salvation Front, though there were other groups involved as well. A wide range of other countries from across the Arab world also became entangled in the conflict to one extent or another, some like Tunisia and Egypt supporting the government, others like Libya and Iran providing covert aid to the Islamists. The government also had some outside aid from the United States and France. For much of the 1990s Algeria was on the brink of becoming a failed state, so endemic was the violence. The conflict resulted in the deaths of between 100,000 and 200,000 people and also led to a considerable flight of people from Algeria, many crossing the Mediterranean Sea to the former colonial power, France.[1]

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    Algerian Civil War chronology of events

    Algeria emerged out of the Algerian War of Independence, fought against the colonial power, France, between 1954 and 1962, with a comparatively secular government in line with the trend of secular Arabism across the Middle East and the Maghreb in the post-Second World War decades. Veterans of the war against France like Houari Boumédiène and Chadli Bendjedid continued to control the country as a semi-dictatorship for decades to come as part of the Front de Libération Nationale (FLN) or National Liberation Front that had emerged to fight the French in the 1950s. There was opposition though. Economic decline as Algeria’s connections to the French market collapsed, as well as a growing tide of Islamic fundamentalism throughout much of the Middle East and Africa, led to the emergence of groups like the Islamic Salvation Front. The Front was formed in 1989 and made striking gains in local elections in 1990. The possibility that it would emerge victorious in a general election in 1992 led to the outbreak of the Algerian Civil War.[2]

    The 1992 coup in Algeria

    The first round of the 1992 elections were actually held on the 26th of December 1991, with the second round scheduled to follow early in 1992. The Islamic Salvation Front, led by Abdelkader Hachani, emerged from the first round with over 47% of the seats in parliament, compared to just 23% for Bendjedid’s FLN. The second round in 1992 would almost certainly guarantee a majority for the Islamic Salvation Front. Consequently, on the 11th of January 1992, the military launched a coup d’état and cancelled the elections. Another FLN veteran, Mohamed Boudiaf, was drafted in as Chairman of an interim government. Meanwhile, the Islamic Salvation Front responded by launching an insurgency against the government. This included the assassination of Boudiaf in June 1992.[3]

    The Air France plane hijacked in 1994

    The Algerian Civil War that now commenced built slowly. For a time in 1992 and 1993 it appeared as though it might remain relatively contained, but in 1994 it became much more violent as holy war or jihad was declared and new Islamic groups emerged. It also took on the shape of a terrorist campaign, elements of which extended to attacks on France, which supported the Algerian government. For instance, on Christmas Eve 1994 an Air France flight from Algiers was hijacked, with the terrorists planning on detonating or crashing the plane into a major Parisian landmark like the Eiffel Tower. In the end the plane was stormed at Marseille before the plotters could realize their objective.[4] Flights to and from Algeria were suspended thereafter by the French airline companies and would not resume for another decade as Algeria increasingly became a no-go zone for westerners. In tandem, tens of thousands of Algerians tried to leave the country to avoid the violence.

    The civil war was further complicated by the involvement of numerous foreign powers, albeit many doing so clandestinely. Muammar Gaddafi channeled aid to the Islamic Salvation Front from Libya, while other Islamist groups in the country were supported by Iran.[5] On the other side, the government was backed by France, the United States, the European Union, Egypt and Tunisia. By the late 1990s the Islamist groups had lost most of their popular support amongst the wider Algerian population as a result of their harsh methods. In 1999 another FLN veteran, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, became president and offered an amnesty to most of those who had participated in the fighting if they laid down their arms. Many availed of this offer and through a combination of coercion and conciliation the government managed to bring the civil war to an end by 2002.[6]

    Bouteflika subsequently ruled the country for twenty years until forced into stepping down after it became known that he was seeking a fifth term in 2019. His rule was repressive and Algeria was the only state, along with Morocco, in North Africa to avoid the overthrow of the government during the Arab Spring of 2011. Owing to the political repression of the Bouteflika era, which in itself can be viewed as an offshoot of the civil war, many people continued to try and leave Algeria during the 2000s and 2010s.[7]

    Extent of migration during the Algerian Civil War

    The Algerian Civil War led to considerable displacement, though there was no mass refugee crisis on an international scale. Instead a large percentage of the 1.5 million or so people who were displaced migrated internally within Algeria, Africa’s second largest country at the time (it has since become the largest after the partition of Sudan). Of those who fled abroad, the majority headed either west to Morocco, east to Tunisia or north to the colonial power, France, a country with a very large Algerian community already since the demise of French Algeria.[8]

    Demographic impact of the Algerian Civil War

    Abdelaziz Bouteflika

    The Algerian Civil War resulted in the deaths of somewhere between 100,000 and 200,000 people. The figure is disputed. In a country with a population of over 26 million people in 1992 and a high birth rate, this had no discernible impact on the overall population growth and Algeria’s population had grown to over 31 million by the time the war ended in 2002. The conflict did lead to an increase in the size of several Algerian diaspora communities abroad as tens of thousands of people left the country, both during the civil war and afterwards during the repressive Bouteflika era. Much of this simply contributed to the growth of the Algerian community in France. However, there has been some movement in unexpected directions. For instance, a minor community of approximately 1,000 Algerians has developed in Ireland since the 1990s, where previously none existed. Thus, in decades to come many people in countries in Europe will have an Algerian ancestor who left North Africa during the civil war era and its aftermath.[9]

    See also

    Explore more about the Algerian Civil War

    References

    1. ↑ https://www.wilsoncenter.org/article/algeria-bloody-past-and-fractious-factions
    2. ↑ https://archives.history.ac.uk/history-in-focus/Migration/articles/house.html
    3. ↑ https://www.wilsoncenter.org/article/algeria-bloody-past-and-fractious-factions
    4. ↑ https://www.ft.com/content/ae8f5f1d-677e-4f5f-b7b6-2e6450d4431d
    5. ↑ https://jamestown.org/program/the-changing-face-of-the-jihadist-movement-in-libya/
    6. ↑ https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/sep/20/abdelaziz-bouteflika-obituary
    7. ↑ https://theconversation.com/bouteflika-steps-aside-as-algerians-push-to-reclaim-and-own-their-history-114380
    8. ↑ https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/algeria-morocco-migration-history
    9. ↑ https://www.irishtimes.com/world/africa/2024/01/31/algeria-added-to-irelands-list-of-safe-countries-is-it-safe/


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