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| - Algeria on Tuesday designated the Kabylie separatist group MAK and Islamist movement Rachad, both based abroad, "terrorist" organisations, the presidency announced. It said in a statement that the country's High Security Council based its decision on "hostile and subversive acts" carried out by the two groups which aim to "destabilise the country and damage its security". In March, an Algiers court issued international arrest warrants for Rachad co-founder Mohamed Larbi Zitout, a former Algerian diplomat living in Britain, and three activists accused of membership of the organisation. The group stands accused of infiltrating and inciting violence within the ranks of the Hirak anti-government protest movement. The banned Paris-based Movement for the Autonomy of Kabylie, for its part, has been accused of planning attacks in Algeria, a charge it denies. The Hirak, a peaceful protest movement, was sparked by president Abdelaziz Bouteflika's 2019 bid for a fifth term in office. The ailing autocrat was quickly forced to step down, but protests have continued, demanding a sweeping overhaul of a ruling system in place since Algeria's independence from France in 1962. ad-agr/hc/dwo
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