Ahmed Ben Bella
President of Algeria from 1963 to 1965 · Algeria · On the map · Politicians · Lived 1916 to 2012 · aged 95
He led Algeria's independence war from exile in Cairo, became its first elected president with a Soviet-style 99.6 percent landslide, then spent fifteen years under house arrest after his own defense minister seized power.
Ahmed Ben Bella is read about 658 times a day, in 75 languages.
A typical day, 30 days to 13 November 2026
The middle day of the days counted, so one week of news cannot move it. The line under it is the last 400 days, one point a day.
Something wrong?A life in dates
Charles de Gaulle 5 moreIn historyIndependence from FranceWith Charles de Gaulle 5 more1916Born25 December 1916People around Ahmed
Ahmed Ben BellaPartners
Is this everyone?
Only relatives with a profile here are drawn, so a family can be larger than this. A line here can also be wrong. A marriage is drawn as ended only where its end is recorded, so a spouse drawn here may be a former one.
Correct this familyAlso in Deutsch
Media & music
Photos 8
.jpg?width=1200)
Ahmed Ben Bella aux USA, oct.1962 (cropped)
Ahmed Ben Bella 1997
Ahmed Ben Bella and Carlos Menem
Ahmed Ben Bella avec L'abbé Alfred Bérenguer
AHMED BEN BELLA ET DIGHECHE KHALED
Ahmed Ben Bella illustration
Ahmed Ben Bella, Mohamed Khider, Hocine Aït Ahmed.jpg?width=1200)
Algerian President Ahmed Ben Bella on the cover of the Syrian magazine "al-Jundi", 1963 (cropped)In their own words 4
, We must remember the obstacles of the era. The long walk to independence was not easy. The war did not unfold in a continuous manner. Forceps were required for the delivery.
We have heard speeches delivered in which speakers questioned how to improve Africa's standard of living and what to do to make Africans eat better.
Revolutions are very complex. Nothing is easy. Few people want to risk their necks.
Awards
About this person
Ben Bella was a soldier and revolutionary who commanded the National Liberation Front during Algeria's war against France, coordinating weapons and strategy from Cairo while dodging multiple French assassination attempts. When independence came in 1962, his Oujda Group muscled aside the provisional government; he took the prime minister's office, then elbowed out acting president Ferhat Abbas within a year to claim the presidency himself. He steered the new state toward Arab socialism and pan-Arabism, aligning with Nasser's Egypt and Castro's Cuba, nationalizing industries, and calling himself a Nasserist. Border clashes with Morocco in the Sand War and a failed socialist uprising at home shadowed his rule. On 19 June 1965, his defense minister Houari Boumédiéne overthrew him in a coup. He remained under house arrest until 17 January 1980, living another three decades in the shadow of the state he had built.
