The Algerian Army (ALN)

views updated

The Algerian Army (ALN)

Anticolonial conflicts: Algeria and France

Book excerpt

By: Joan Brace and Richard Brace

Date: May 1965

Source: "The Algerian Army" is a chapter in the book, Algerian Voices, published in 1965 by the Van Nostrand Company.

About the Author: Richard and Joan Brace were also the authors of another book dealing with the Algerian-French conflict entitled Ordeal in Algeria, published in 1960, and the first book in English that presented the conflict from an Algerian point of view. The Braces were later invited by the revolutionary government to spend a few days with the Army of National Liberation (ALN) on the Algerian-Tunisian border in 1961, and detailed the experience in Algerian Voices.

INTRODUCTION

In 1954, nine Algerian nationalists formed the Comité revolutionnaire d'unité et d'action (CRUA) [Revolutionary Committee for Unity and Action] to promote armed struggle against the longtime French rule of Algeria. Later that year, CRUA became the Front de liberation nationale (FLN) [National Liberation Front], which had an armed wing known as the Armée de liberation nationale (ALN) [Army of National Liberation]. In November 1954, the ALN began the Algerian revolution with terrorist attacks on police stations, garages, gas works, and post offices in the city of Algiers. ALN operations quickly spread to the countryside. After the signing of a ceasefire between the FLN and France on March 18, 1962, Algeria gained independence from France on July 3, 1962.

The Algerians never welcomed French governance. Following the French invasion of this predominantly Muslim North African country in 1830, the Algerians refused to be subdued. On May 8, 1945, when the French celebrated the Victory in Europe at end of World War II, Algerians displayed nationalist flags and began an uprising in Sétif that initially killed more than 80 French. Subsequent French reprisals killed either 1,500 Algerians, according to French estimates, 45,000 Algerians, according to Algerian estimates, or 10,000–15,000 Algerians, according to independent estimates.

In 1947, a faction of the nationalists formed the Organization armée secrete [Secret Organization] to advocate armed resistance. In March 1954, nine members of this group, including Ahmed Ben Bella, formed CRUA. As French authorities resorted to the use of torture to obtain information about the uprising, Algerian nationalists responded with terrorist attacks. When the FLN and ALN formed in 1954, they immediately began using terrorism as a tactic against French imperialism.

The number of terrorists in the field likely numbered about 9,000, but widespread Algerian support for the ALN helped the organization to thrive. By 1956, there were about 400,000 French troops in Algeria attempting to control the revolt. The number of French soldiers in North Africa would rise to 500,000 by 1961.

[This text has been suppressed due to author restrictions]

SIGNIFICANCE

The Algerian uprising proved traumatic for the French, who were threatened by the loss of status that came with the loss of a colony. The Algerian conflict was a principal reason behind France's attack, along with Great Britain, upon Egypt in 1956 during the Suez Canal crisis. France sought to punish Egypt's leader, Gamal Abdel Nasser, for his support of the FLN. The failure of the Suez attack and the French government's inability to resolve the Algerian situation led to the collapse of the French Fourth Republic in 1958 and brought General Charles De Gaulle to power.

By 1958, the French people had grown tired of the troubles in Algeria. A French referendum approved a new constitution for Algeria in 1958, prompting new French President De Gaulle to propose a ceasefire. On September 16, 1959, De Gaulle promised that Algeria would have self-determination within four years. A provisional Algerian government formed in Algiers under President Abderrahman Farès on March 28, 1962. When Algerians voted for independence, De Gaulle granted it in on July 3, 1962.

The violence in Algeria was part of a straightforward independence struggle by indigenous people against their French rulers. It was the direct outgrowth of a wave of nationalism that swept through Africa after World War II. Part of an era that also saw anti-imperialist terrorism in the European colonies of Cameroon, Egypt, Ethiopia, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Mozambique, Tunisia, and Zimbabwe, the Algerian war left about 141,000 Algerians dead. The French costs of the conflict included 17,250 dead soldiers and 51,800 injured troops, with several thousand civilian casualties.

In the years following independence, Algeria has had a lukewarm relationship with France. It has since fully recovered from its war of independence. With large oil and gas deposits, Algeria is among the wealthiest and most advanced of African countries.