Algeria

May 2008 | Ratings Update

Violent clashes in Algeria's M'zab valley have highlighted the ongoing tensions between Arab and Berber populations, fuelled by concerns over jobs and housing. Hundreds of Algerian security forces descended on the town of Beriane in the northern Sahara on May 18, following three nights of violence during which houses and shops were burned and two people were reportedly killed. The Arab and Mozabite (the name given to Berbers from the M'zab valley region) communities are separated along religious, linguistic and economic lines. The Mozabites are Ibadi - rather than Sunni - Muslims, speak their own Berber language rather than Arabic

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