THE AMAZIGH WORLD ASSEMBLY (AMA) IS NEITHER A PARALLEL STRUCTURE NOR A COUNTERFEIT OF THE AMAZIGH WORLD CONGRESS (CMA)

RIGHT OF REPLY

THE “AMAZIGH WORLD ASSEMBLY (AMA)” IS NEITHER A PARALLEL STRUCTURE NOR A COUNTERFEIT OF THE “AMAZIGH WORLD CONGRESS (CMA)”.

The Amazigh World Assembly remains the only international NGO of the Amazigh peoples that has definitively, legally and legitimately replaced the designation “Amazigh World Congress” with “Amazigh World Assembly”, while retaining its indigenous denomination “AGRAW AMADLAN AMAZIGH”.

Recently, a journalist by the name of Jeff Martin published an investigative article on the maneuvers of deep corruption involving the former president of the World Amazigh Congress and Colonel Muammar Gaddafi [1]; matters that had already been denounced at the time [2]. Jeff Martin, who detailed the troubling relations between Mr. Belkacem Lounès and his associates with Gaddafi’s Libya, as well as the embezzlement of public funds allocated to the CMA (for which we thank him), unfairly described our NGO, the Amazigh World Assembly, as a counterfeit structure of the CMA.

Stéphane Arrami had published on 24 October 2025 on his website kabyle.com an interesting reflection entitled: “Tamazgha Needs Unity: Strength Lies in the Grassroots” [3], in which he conveyed the confusion that the “Amazigh World Assembly (AMA)” would be a “parallel structure” to the “Amazigh World Congress (CMA)”.

Consequently, we are obliged to protest vigorously against these false allegations and to clarify to pan-Amazigh and international public opinion that the Amazigh World Assembly is in no way a “parallel structure” [4] or a “counterfeit” of the Amazigh World Congress. Indeed, the Amazigh World Congress simply changed its name and enjoys legality and legitimacy under the name of Amazigh World Assembly, “AGRAW AMADLAN AMAZIGH” according to its original denomination.

Recently, it has been heard that the group of Belkacem Lounès intended to organize two Ninth World Amazigh Congresses between two factions, one of which held its proceedings in the Moroccan city of Essaouira from 24 to 26 October 2025, and the other in the Canary Islands from 24 to 26 April 2026.

This phenomenon of division is often provoked by the intelligence services of the various States of Tamazgha, and this is what happens with Amazigh movements, from which our NGO is no exception.

It is necessary to recall the cause of the division of the CMA during the Fifth General Assembly held in Tizi Ouzou, Algeria; this was explained in detail in the open appeal to Amazigh associations [5] and later to the Tunisian Association of Amazigh Culture [6].

Aware of the challenges of the internationalization of the Amazigh question [7], and in order not to fall into the game of divisions orchestrated by the intelligence services of our North African countries, we decided to dedicate the work of the Sixth General Assembly of the Amazighs of the World, held in December 2011 in Brussels, to the profound restructuring of the Amazigh World Congress (CMA) in order to strengthen the effectiveness of its action on the international scene, namely:

• Firstly, by amending its statutes and correcting its designation so that it corresponds to its original denomination, namely AGRAW AMADLAN AMAZIGH. Article One of the statutes now stipulates that: “The association is named ‘Agraw Amadlan Amazigh’, abbreviated as ‘AAA’; translated from the Amazigh language into French as ‘Assemblée Mondiale Amazighe’, into Flemish as ‘Amazigh Wereld Assemblée’, and into English as ‘Amazigh World Assembly’;
• Secondly, by transferring the headquarters of the organization from Paris to Brussels, where the AWA is registered in the Belgian Official Gazette, in Brussels, the seat of the European Union. The Prefecture of Paris was informed of the transfer of headquarters and the change of denomination by registered mail;
• And thirdly, by adopting an ambitious political and societal project with the “MANIFEST OF TAMAZGHA, For a Democratic, Social and Cross-Border Confederation Based on the Right to Regional Autonomy” [8], based on Amazigh values such as freedom, solidarity, secularism, equality and democracy.

As anthropologist Dr. Mohamed Chtatou points out, this change in name reflected a conceptual evolution from a structure of periodic congresses towards a permanent assembly, better suited to continuous international advocacy [9].

Ultimately, all those women and men activists and associations who participated in the illegal and illegitimate congresses of Mr. Belkacem Lounès and his group have not only fallen into the game of division orchestrated by the services, but are also, knowingly or unknowingly, accomplices, albeit unwittingly, in his corrupt, criminal and unlawful maneuvers, which have caused serious damage to the image of our International Amazigh NGO.

Among these serious offences are identity usurpation, forgery and the use of forged documents, dirty money, human trafficking, embezzlement of funds, falsification of documents, disinformation… Let us hope that following Jeff Martin’s investigative work, the French judiciary will reopen the case. May the Paris Police Prefecture or the Paris Public Prosecutor’s Office open judicial proceedings in order to determine responsibilities concerning these suspicions of financing through dirty money that had, moreover, been embezzled…

In conclusion, AGRAW AMADLAN AMAZIGH remains open to respectable, honest, credible and committed activists who selflessly sacrifice themselves for the defence of the Amazigh cause and the rights of the Amazigh peoples without expecting material rewards or personal favours in return.

The Amazigh World Assembly (former Amazigh World Congress) invites you to the forthcoming Eleventh General Assembly of the Amazighs of the World, to be held in the Moroccan city of Tangier from 9 to 11 October 2026/2976.

Long live Tamazight!

Long live Timazighin d Imazighen!

Long live Tamazgha!

Rachid RAHA, President of the Amazighe World Assembly