Ahmed Ben Bella

Ahmed Ben Bella, born in 1919, first president of Algeria (1963-65), born in Maghnia. He fought in the French army in World War II and was decorated for bravery. After the war he began to fight for Algerian independence, was arrested in 1952, but escaped and fled to Cairo. In 1954 Ben Bella was one of the nine original members of the revolutionary committee that later became the Algerian National Liberation Front (Front de Libération Nationale, or FLN). He was an arms procurer for the FLN in 1956, when he was captured aboard a plane and imprisoned in France. When France agreed to Algerian independence in 1962, Ben Bella was freed, and he returned to Algeria. After defeating his rival, Yusuf Ben Kheddha, for power in 1962, he became premier and later president. As such, he grew increasingly preoccupied with international leadership and more and more autocratic at home. Overthrown in 1965 by his old ally, Houari Boumedienne, Ben Bella was placed under house arrest and was not released until 1980.