The locals in the mountain village of Ait Hidja still speak of the night six months ago when members of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) decapitated a prison warden and set fire to his car.

Aftermath of a 2007 attack on the UN’s Algiers HQ

“The night they cut his head there was such terror in the village,” says Ahcene Idja, an unemployed university graduate. “Then they kidnapped a man and held him hostage until his family paid ransom.”