The Wilaya of Relizane massacres of 4 January, 1998 took place in three remote villages around Oued Rhiou about 150 miles west of Algiers, during the Algerian conflict of the 1990s. At least 172 villagers were killed in a single day of Ramadan:

• at Had Chekala , no residents survived; more than 30 guerrillas burned the village down afterwards
• at Remka (or Ramka, or Meknessa; see map), 117 killed. A survivor told La Tribune "One pregnant woman had her fetus cut out and slaughtered."
• at Ain Tarik , an unknown number were killed

The massacres were attributed to the GIA, and had been preceded some days before by the Wilaya of Relizane massacres of 30 December 1997. They provoked mass population flight from the afflicted area - the population of Ramka, for instance, dropped from 9,200 in 1990 to 5,215 in 1998 - and led to international condemnation and calls for an independent investigation.

See also

• List of Algerian massacres of the 1990s

External links

• BBC
• BBC
• Irish Examiner
• CNN
• IDP Survey