Ben Bella, Mohammed Ahmed

Ben Bella, Mohammed Ahmed (b. 25 Dec. 1916). President of Algeria 1963–5 Born in Maghnia close to the Moroccan border, he served in the French army during World War II. He then turned against the French and in 1947 became leader of the militant wing of the Algerian nationalist movement, the ‘Special Organization’. Imprisoned by the French in 1950, he escaped to Cairo in 1952 and subsequently founded the Front de Libération Nationale (FLN), which became the main Algerian nationalist force during the Algerian War of Independence. In 1956, he was captured and imprisoned after the French government persuaded a Moroccan aeroplane to land in Algiers. Released in 1962 to conduct the Évian Agreements which won his country independence, he became Prime Minister in September, before becoming President with extended powers in April 1963. He established a socialist Arab republic, but was reluctant to exchange his country's economic reliance on France for the Soviet Union. He hoped to secure his power with the establishment of a one-party state, but was was ousted in a coup by his defence minister, Boumédienne, on 19 June 1965. He was kept under house arrest throughout Boumédienne's rule, and was allowed to leave for exile to France only in July 1979. Returning to Algeria in September 1990, he founded the Movement for a Democratic Algeria, though his activities were hampered by the declaration of a state of emergency in 1992.