Topic: 2025 – Reducing Recruitment Capabilities of Terrorist Groups
Country: Algeria
Delegate Name: Charlotte Dykstra
Committee: Disarmament and International Security
Topic: Reducing the Recruitment Capabilities of Terrorist Groups
Country: People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria
Delegate: Charlotte Dykstra, FH Northern HS
The People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria approaches the issue of terrorist recruitment with the historical memory of one of the deadliest extremist insurgencies in modern North Africa. From 1991 to 2002, Algeria endured a brutal civil conflict, often called the Black Decade, in which extremist groups exploited political instability, economic marginalization, and social vulnerability to recruit tens of thousands of fighters. This national trauma deeply informs Algeria’s commitment to preventing terrorist recruitment and addressing the root conditions that allow violent extremism to thrive. As a frontline state in counterterrorism, Algeria views this committee’s work as central to international peace and security.
Terrorist recruitment continues to affect Algeria today. Although the country has significantly reduced domestic terrorism, lingering cells in the Sahel, lenient borders, trafficking networks, and regional instability threaten to strengthen recruitment pipelines. Vulnerable populations, especially unemployed youth in border regions, remain targets for extremist rhetoric and propaganda. Algeria has consistently warned that socioeconomic deprivation and human rights violations create environments vulnerable to terrorist manipulation.
Algeria’s policies toward countering recruitment combine security measures with socioeconomic development. The country rejects purely militarized approaches, insisting that the fight against terrorism is inseparable from the fight against poverty, exclusion, and despair, as former President Abdelmadjid Tebboune has stated. Algeria prioritizes community-based prevention, de-radicalization programs, strong public education systems, and efforts to empower youth economically and politically. The justification for these policies is rooted in Algeria’s own recovery: extremism declined only when the government combined security operations with reconciliation, investment, and social reintegration.
Statistics illustrate Algeria’s success and ongoing challenges. Since 2000, terrorist incidents within Algeria have dropped by more than 90%, yet over 80% of extremist recruitment attempts reported by Algerian intelligence now occur online or through transnational networks in the Sahel. Youth unemployment, while improved, remains around 26%, making young people particularly vulnerable to recruitment by groups offering income or social belonging.
Algeria has taken strong national actions to reduce recruitment, including creating the National Commission for the Prevention and Deradicalization of Violent Extremism, investing in rural development, strengthening cybersecurity units to monitor online radicalization, and collaborating with religious leaders to counter extremist narratives.
Internationally, Algeria is a signatory to the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy, the African Union’s 2014 Nouakchott Process on regional security, and multiple conventions on counterterrorism and transnational crime. Algeria has supported UN resolutions emphasizing education, community resilience, and international cooperation while opposing proposals that undermine national sovereignty or impose external military operations without regional consent.
Algeria believes this committee should prioritize mitigating structural drivers of recruitment, regulating extremist propaganda on social media, supporting school systems in high-risk regions, and funding reintegration programs for children formerly associated with armed groups. Algeria hopes this resolution advances international cooperation, enhances information-sharing on online radicalization, and recognizes the importance of development in preventing extremism.
