In brief

Amazigh activist Kamel Eddine Fekhar dies after more than 50 days of hunger strike

Human rights defender had been detained over alleged offence against authorities

Kamel Eddine Fekhar.
Kamel Eddine Fekhar. Author: LADDH
Human rights activist Kamel Eddine Fekhar died yesterday at the Frantz Fanon hospital in Blida (Algeria) after having gone on a hunger strike for more than 50 days. Fekhar was denouncing his umpteenth imprisonment, this time over an alleged offence against the authorities and institutions of the Republic.

Fekhar had been transferred to the hospital from the Ghardaia prison, where he remained imprisoned since March. In recent days, his wife and his lawyer had warned of Fekhar’s precarious health.

The activist had been detained and imprisoned several occasions over the last years, always in relation to his struggle for human rights and particularly for collective rights of the Amazigh Mozabite people in the Mzab Valley, a region in central Algeria.

Fekhar was too one of the leading voices of the Movement for the Autonomy of Mzab and former senior member of the Algerian League for the Defense of Human Rights (LADDH), which voiced its “indignation and rage” after the activist’s death.

Fekhar’s deatch is being followed by several protests in the country. Amazigh, student and human rights movements are describing the facts as a “crime” and “murder” by the authorities.