In 2001, a young Kabyle student, Massinissa Guermah, was arrested by Algerian gendarmes and later died inside the gendarmerie.

President Abdelaziz Bouteflika's government claimed that the real name of Massinissa was in fact Karim and that he was a jobless criminal aged 26.

As of April 2002, the Algerian Human Rights League reports 128 Kabyles killed, 5000 wounded of which 200 have become permanently disabled, and thousands of arrests, bad treatment, torture and arbitrary detentions.

At the end of the Black Spring events, the Algerian press reported 128 Kabyles were killed,[1] and thousands were severely injured in the riots, or tortured by the Gendarmerie paramilitaries.

The region of Barbacha has managed to gain a significant degree of autonomy, giving hope to many Kabylie activists.