The Head of the Mauritanian Popular Front Party Mohamed Mahmoud Ould Tolba stated in an interview with TaqVaylit.TV on Jan. 14 that he fully supports the creation of a Kabyle state.
The Movement for Self-determination of Kabylia (MAK) has sought peacefully for the last 20 years to obtain independence from Algeria to ensure the human and civil rights of the 12 million Kabyle people, notwithstanding MAK’s recent classification as a terrorist organization by the Algerian authorities, a designation rejected by the US State Department last year.
In the interview, tweeted by Kabyle government-in-exile spokesman and activist Aksel Bellabbaci, the Mauritian politician and engineer talked about the Amazigh (non-Arab) origins of North African people, highlighting the Amazigh influence upon significant aspects of the region’s history. The interview coincided with a march held the same day in Paris in support of “Kabylia” and “Azawad,” (a political and military organization based in Northern Mali, striving for separation).
He said that all of North Africa shares a long common history, and whether you are talking about Mauritania, Algeria, Mali, Niger, or Morocco, the Znaga or Sanhaja people, members of the tribe that founded the Almoravid Dynasty between the eleventh and twelfth centuries, are still there.
Amazigh people suffer from discrimination in many countries, he asserted, mainly in Niger, Burkina Faso, and Mali, experiencing beatings, assassination, and injustice every day “just because they are Amazigh.”
Ould Tolba has previously criticized his country’s position on the Sahara conflict, asserting that Mauritania’s recognition of the so-called “Sahrawi Arab Republic” was a mistake, and “an unwise and unacceptable position.”
He has also talked about Algeria’s dream and strategy to reach the Atlantic Ocean to enable it to export its goods by sea, which he asserted, “perfectly explains Algeria’s unconditional support for the separatists in the Sahara.”
Ould Tolba applauded the U.S.’s recognition of Morocco’s sovereignty over the Sahara territory, describing it as a turning point in the geopolitics of the region and the “beginning of the end of an artificial conflict” that has lasted for more than four decades.