Wilaya of Relizane massacres of 30 December 1997

On the evening of 30 December 1997, the first day of Ramadan, at approximately 6:15 pm, armed assailants attacked four farming villages in the Ammi Moussa area of what was then Relizane Province, western Algeria, roughly 150 miles west of Algiers. The attacks occurred during the Algerian Civil War, a conflict that began after the military's cancellation of the 1992 elections, which the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) had been poised to win. The Ouarsenis Mountains region, described as arid, inaccessible, and poor, had experienced little prior violence, and most local inhabitants had voted for the pro-government FLN and RND parties in the 1997 elections.

The four villages attacked were Kherarba (also known as Ouled Kherarba, Khrouba, or Khourba), Sahnoun (also Ouled Sahnoun, Ouled Sahnine, Ouled Sahrine, or Ouled Sahnine), El-Abadel (also Al Abadel), and Ouled-Tayeb (also Oulad Taieb, Ben Taïyeb, or Douar Ouled Tayeb). According to accounts, assailants armed with axes and knives swept through the villages as residents sat down to break their Ramadan fast, killing families indiscriminately, including men, women, children, and babies, inside their homes. Reports describe beheadings and other severe violence, as well as the killing of livestock and dogs. The attackers reportedly did not leave until dawn.

The assailants were reportedly dressed in a style associated with "Afghans," a term used in Algeria for veterans of the Afghan conflict. Survivors quoted in the Algerian press identified the leader of the attackers as Aoued Abdallah, known as "Cheikh Noureddine," described as a western Algeria head of the Armed Islamic Group (GIA). Pamphlets reportedly circulated in Algiers announcing further violence and signed by the GIA. These massacres were followed shortly afterward by additional killings in Relizane on 4 January 1998, and together the events are reported to have prompted a significant exodus of residents from the region.

The Algerian government informed the United Nations Commission on Human Rights that a judicial inquiry was opened on 31 December 1997, and that on 8 February 1998 the examining magistrate ordered further investigations, with legal proceedings said to be continuing at the time of that report.

Casualty figures for the massacres vary substantially depending on the source. An initial official estimate placed the death toll at 78. Le Matin and El Watan, citing hospital sources, reported 252 deaths. The Algerian government's own statement to the UN Commission on Human Rights cited 272 deaths. The newspaper Liberté reported a much higher figure of 412 deaths across the four villages, with individual village tolls reported as high as 176 (Kherarba), 113 (Sahnoun), 73 (El-Abadel), and 50 (Ouled-Tayeb) according to that outlet, compared to lower official figures for some villages.