Enfumedes of Dhara & Ain Merane 1845

Enfumades

Enfumades is a killing technique used by the French Colonial Armies in Algeria during the pacification campaign in 1844 and 1845 in order to reduce the supporters of Emir Abdelkader in Chlef and Mostaganem. Enfumades is being practiced by the French Army commanded by General Thomas-Robert Bugeaud and General Jacques-Marie Cavaignacs against unarmed Algerian tribes. The meaning of enfumades is to suffocate the people that took refuge in the cave by trapping them inside it by setting fire at the entry of the cave so it can consume the available oxygen then fulfill it with smoke inside the cave then the whole people who were hiding inside it would be annihilated.

Above Images (Enfumedes)

Enfumades of Dahra Cave - 18 June 1845

The enfumades of Dahra cave count as one of the most heinous crimes committed by the French colonial armies against the defenseless population during their colonization of Algeria.

The French colonial forces has been practicing scorched earth policy by torturing people, burning villages, seizure of cattles and burning of  harvest since their invasion of Algeria in 1830. The Arabian tribe of Ouled Reyah was not spared from extermination committed by the French army in order to replace them with other European settlers.

This horrific event took place on 18 and 19 June in eastern Mostaganem which is located in west of Algeria, where Emir Abdelkader launched a violent resistance against the French invaders 13 years ago since the start of French Invasion of Algeria.

A regiment of the French Army led by Colonel Aimable Pelissier attacked the village of Ouled Reyah but the villagers led by Boumazza resisted hardly but unfortunately the French crushed the resistance and destroyed everything which forced the survived people in the village to flee, but Colonel Pelissier did not just destroy the village he also ordered his soldiers to follow the fleeing people.

The survived ones from the tribe of Ouled Reyah took refuge in the cave of Dhara then Colonel Pelissier opened the negotiation with leaders of the tribe of Ouled Reyah but the tribal leaders demanded the withdrawal of French soldiers in exchange for their submission, during the talks both sides opened fire at each other but the tribe of Ouled Reyah refused to surrender to the French. Colonel Pelissier then ordered his soldiers to set fire at the entrance of the cave to force them to go out and kneel to him but all his threats was in vain so he ordered his soldiers to set fire again at night causing the death of women, children, elders and even their animals who all died of suffocation.

Next day after the enfumades, Colonel Pelissier sent a company of soldiers to enter the cave, inside the cave it was a mournful silence with growls reign there at the entrance of the cave the animals (cattles) which had been wrapped their heads to prevent them from seeing or roar are laid down with their body half burnt, and then there are groups frightening that death has entered there were father was suffocated when he was defending his wife and child against the rabies in the agony of a bull which he still grasped the horns of the bull, Elsewhere in the cave there were spouses or lovers engaged in a close body to body suffocation which both of them were tightened the ties formed by their arms entwined. New born babies were laid among crates and provisions, finally here and there masses of flesh trampled formless form as a kind of human mush.   

The enfumades of Dhara has left the deaths of 760  from the tribe of Ouled Reyah according to a French officer who was part of this massacre while other sources indicate that there are more than 1,000 deaths.

The French Officer wrote on his dairy “The caves are huge, there were 760 dead bodies only 60 people came out but from them there-quarter of them died, 40 survived, 10 are in the ambulance (French Medical tent) they are dangerously sick and the last 10 were released to return to their tribes, they were just crying on the ruins.”

After the massacre Colonel Pelissier stated without any feelings ”The skin of my drums had more value than the lives of all those miserables.”

Enfumedes of Ain Merane Cave - 8 August 1845

In 8 August 1845, Colonel St.Arnaud and his forces discovered a cave in Ain Merane that was refuge place for 500 people from the tribe of Bani Sabeh, they refused to come out and surrender which made Colonel St.Arnaud order his soldiers to Enfumez them all.

Colonel St.Arnaud commanded the 2nd column that was tracking Boumaaza who escaped to Dhara then he headed to Tenes and Mostaganem. In Tenes Colonel St.Arnaud portrayed perfectly in a letter to his brother, the circumstances leading to the massacre of suffocation of more than 500 people.

Colonel’s letter to his brother:

“Dear Brother I wanted to tell you a long story of my expedition, but I don't have enough time I have to write eight pages to the Marshal. Tiredness and heat overwhelm me, I spent my last twenty four hours on horseback I just send you a kind of summary of my journal operations. You

know i had directed three columns to surprise the Cherif by a combined movement. Everything happened as I had expected.

I rejected Boumaaza on the columns of Tenes and Mostaganem that held them and pursued. Boumaaza eventually escaped from General Claparede,   Canrobert, Fleury and Colonel Berthier. I was told 34 heads, but it is as I wanted, the same day, eight o'clock I was pushing a reconnaissance of the caves 200 meters of development with 5 entries.

We received gunshots, I was so surprised that I respectfully welcomed some bullets which is not usual. The same evening the 53rd came under fire, one man injured, measurement well taken.

Nine o’clock, beginning of siege works, blockade, mines, detonators, summons, instances. Please come out and surrender, Answer: insults, profanity, gunshots. Fires lit on ten & eleven o’clock with same repetitions.

11 Arabs urged their compatriots to leave and surrender but they refused, twelve o’clock, 11 Arabs left the cave but the others draw their guns so I hermetically seal all exits of the cave and I made a huge cemetery, the earth will cover forever the bodies of it’s fanatics.

Nobody came down to the caves, nobody...but myself knows that there were 500 dead bodies who did not slay the French. A confidential report was sent to the marshal said it all simply without poetry or picture. Brother no one is good by nature like me, from 8 to 12 I was sick but my conscience does not reproach me. I did my duty as a leader, and tomorrow I will do it again, but I have taken Africa in disgust.”     

  

The massacre of the column of 450 led by Colonel Montagnac in 24 September by Emir Abdelkader, is the response to the abuses committed by the French army during the spring and summer of 1845.