Two people, a man named Foussa Zaidi and his wife, were initially arrested on August 4 in Bejaia, some 220 kilometres (136 miles) east of Algiers, after authorities found weapons inside their car upon their arrival from Marseille, said the ministry.

"Security services proceeded to arrest 19 other members of the same terrorist network and seized another significant quantity of weapons discovered in a clandestine weapons cache near Bejaia," it said in a statement.

The defence ministry said the group were part of the Movement for the Autonomy of Kabylie (MAK), which Algeria classifies as a "terrorist organisation".

In total, 21 weapons were seized along with 2,000 live bullets and "clothing similar to military uniforms", among other things, state news agency APS reported Wednesday.

It was not clear how the couple had managed to leave the French port with the weapons in their vehicle, a grey Citroen mini-van.

The group aimed at "sowing disorder and insecurity and disrupting the smooth running of the next presidential elections" scheduled for September 7, the defence ministry said.

The ministry also accused "foreign intelligence services hostile to Algeria" of "complicity", adding that "a network of this terrorist organisation operating on French territory" provided the weapons.

MAK was founded in 2001 after a series of protests in the Berber-majority Kabylie region in northeastern Algeria.

In 2022, its leader, Ferhat Mehenni who lives in France, was sentenced in absentia to life imprisonment for "creating a terrorist organisation and undermining national integrity and national unity".

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