biography
| name: |
Ben Bella, (Mohammed) Ahmed
|
pronunciation:
[ben bela]
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1918– )
|
| biography:
| A key figure in the Algerian War of Independence against France, and Algeria's first prime minister (1962–3) and president (1963–5), born in Maghnia, NW Algeria. He fought with the Free French in World War 2, and in 1949 became head of the Organisation Spéciale, the paramilitary wing of the Algerian nationalist Parti du Peuple Algérien. In 1952 he escaped from a French-Algerian prison to Cairo, where he became a key member of the Front de Libération Nationale (FLN). Captured by the French in 1956, he spent the remainder of the war in a French prison. Following independence (1962) he became president, but was deposed in 1965. After 15 years of imprisonment, he went into voluntary exile in 1980, returning to Algeria in 1990. |
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