In 1954, Chentouf joined the National Liberation Front (NLF), after a split occurred in the leadership of MTDL. The following year, she was exiled and remained outside the country for several months during the declared state of emergency. When she returned, Chentouf joined Baya Larab and Hamoud, resuming their agitation, but she was arrested. Upon her release, because of intense surveillance, Chentouf went to Tunisia, where she was joined several months later by her husband. She became part of the group responsible for the creation of the Algerian Red Crescent Society in 1957. Because the NLF did not trust the French Red Cross and the terms of the Geneva Conventions were not recognized because of the internal nature of the conflict, activists hoped to gain both humanitarian aid and gain international acceptance by becoming members of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent. The first offices of the organization were established in Tangier, Morocco and Tunis, where Chentouf and her husband remained until 1962.