The security setup is gathering 8000 men (4000 police officers, 2000 gendarmes and 2000 soldiers drawn from the military police), shouldered by helicopters carrying inflight cameras. All are in charge to ensure no more trouble is happening in ‘problematic’ areas and municipalities. The bloodiest fighting took place in the mixed places in the wilayas, i.e. areas where both communities live together. Such is the case for instance for the El Hoffra area which regularly records incidents. To help identify the faces of these «propagators of hatred », authorities also decided to install surveillance cameras at each street corner. And the courts show no mercy to the tenant of violence.

Thanks to this impressive human and material display, no more than 34 persons have already been arrested, among which 16 have been placed into custody, 4 are undergoing judiciary control and 13 benefit from temporary release until the day of their trial. As evidence that calm is returning, school pupils are back to school and shopkeepers who suffered serious damages during the troubles also reopened their shops. The M’zab Valley is back to normal. But the question everybody raises in Ghardaïa is to know how long this will last.

Difficult cohabitation

Can Malekites and Ibadite communities start again to live together in peace as they have been doing for centuries? «Nobody will move as long as the military are here. Everybody has understood that authorities are no longer having fun», says Mehdi a teacher at the high school in Ghardaïa town. He says he is convinced that the crisis of the M’zab Valley does not come from a problem between the Ibadites and Malekite communities. For him, this is much more « the consequence of a war between mafia to control the smuggling networks». « The confusion and anarchy is good for their business. Only honest people are losing out», Mehdi bitterly goes on.

This is true that the region enjoys the reputation to be a crossroads of many trafficking routes; however Mehdi’s explanation is not shared by the Mozabites (Ibadites) who claim they are assaulted daily by the Malekites, at least by the most extremists among them. In the Ibadite side, one calls for self-defence. «We are victims of the intolerance of some of our neighbours. We are assaulted. We are even denied the right to practice our rite. We’ve been called miscreants….that we areKharidjites in our own country. This is just inacceptable. We don’t even feel safe at home. We don’t ask anything from anybody. In fact, they just cannot but envy our success», says Kameledine, a fortyish years old Mozabite who runs a food shop in Ghardaïa’s city centre. Leaning on the counter of his shop, he calls on the authorities to assume their responsibilities and not to let such drifts to happen. «This is up to the State to protect us », he insists: «We don’t like trouble, but if they fail to protect us, then Ibadites will have no other choice to defend themselves alone».

On the Malekites’ side, the other community holds a totally different stance. Here the grapes of wrath grew on the reluctance displayed by Ibadites to integrate to the rest of the population and to accept alterity. «They want to stay among themselves. Look for yourself, the communitarian spirit is so strong that they demand that areas of town are built up for them alone to settle. The problem is that in many municipalities, there is not enough room to please everyone», protests Abdallah a mechanic born within the M’dabih tribe, the tribe which has always maintain a long history of hatred against Ibadites. What is not helping indeed is the fact that building land does lack in the M’zab Valley and that unemployment is high. These two factors are fuelling anger on both sides.

So are the two communities condemned to continue nonstop quarrel, and to dispute the available territory in Ghardaïa ? For social scientist Mohamed Mokhtari, « the situation is not unavoidable as there is no institutionalisation of violence. ». He thinks that to end the community conflict, one must promote citizenship, and launch a local development policy. According to the sociologist, the State must «make sure that the people have free access to progress and to jobs. One must create a new spirit, with incitement to free enterprise». Hence, economic will increase, solidarity links will be tightened, and a new dynamics created. With lasting peace as a potential result. The recent initiatives taken by the government as local development politics in the region, have proven that Mohamed Mokhtari’s ideas on the crisis have not been met by deaf ears.

(*) Ibadism is a kind of Islam, distinct from Sunni and Shia Islam. It is usually considered by other Muslim movements as one of the branches stemming from Kharidjism (i.e. the « outgoers », that is those who neither belong to Sunni nor Shia Islam) however Ibadites themselves denied this. Defending a puritan practice of Islam, Ibadism would be one of its oldest movements, created fifty years after Mohammad’s death. Ibadism is the mainstream rite in the Sultanate of Oman and in the M'zab region in Algeria.

(*) Malekism is one of the four madhhab, or classical schools of Sunni Muslims. It is based upon the teachings of Imam Mālik ibn Anas (711 - 795), a theologian and law maker who lived in Madina. This is the majority school in North Africa and in West Africa.