page_title: Ahmed Ben Bella
section_title: Algerian War
hierarchical_section_title: Ahmed Ben Bella / Before independence / Algerian War
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Principaux dirigeants du FLN (de gauche à droite&#160;: Mohamed Khider, Mostefa Lacheraf, Hocine Aït Ahmed, Mohamed Boudiaf et Ahmed Ben Bella) après leur arrestation suite au détournement, le 22 octobre 1956 par l'armée française, de leur avion civil marocain, entre Rabat et Tunis, en direction du Caire (Egypte). English: Principle leaders of the FLN (left to right: Mohamed Khider, Mostefa Lacheraf, Hocine Aït Ahmed, Mohamed Boudiaf, and Ahmed Ben Bella). Taken after their 22 October 1956 arrest by the French Army following the interception of their (Moroccan civilian) flight between Rabat and Tunis headed for Cairo. العربية: القادة التاريخين لجبهة التحرير الجزائرية بعد اختطاف طائرتهم في 22 أكتوبر 1956 في عملية عسكرية للجيش الفرنسي. من اليمين إلى اليسار: أحمد بن بلة - محمد بوضياف - حسين آيت أحمد - مصطفى الأشرف - محمد خيضر
context_page_description: Ahmed Ben Bella was an Algerian politician, socialist soldier and revolutionary who served as the first President of Algeria from 1963 to 1965.
context_section_description: Ben Bella played an important role during the war leading the FLN, organizing the shipment of foreign weapons and coordinating political strategy. Although he was not present in Algeria, attempts against his life persisted. In 1956, he refused to receive a package delivered by taxi to his hotel in Cairo; a bomb exploded inside the taxi as it drove away, killing the driver. In the same year, while in his hotel in Tripoli, a French gunman entered his room and fired, wounding but not killing him; the shooter was later killed by guards while fleeing, at the Libyan border. In October 1956, he was arrested in Algiers by French military authorities, who highjacked the plane on which he was flying. He was kept prisoner until the Evian accords in 1962, and released on July 5. After national independence he was named Vice President of Algeria in Benyoucef Benkhedda's cabinet. His arrest earlier had led to the resignation of Alain Savary, who was opposed to Guy Mollet's policies; as a prisoner during the height of the FLN terror campaign, he remained relatively untarnished by his association with the organization.
  When Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser invited Ben Bella to speak for the first time to an Egyptian audience, he broke into tears because he could not speak standard Arabic. Like many Arab revolutionaries of the time, he would come to describe himself as a "Nasserist" and developed close ties to Egypt even before national independence was achieved. Nasser's material, moral and political support of the Algerian movement became a source of geopolitical trouble for Egypt, as it played a major role in France's decision to wage war against him during the 1956 Suez Crisis.
  Due to Pakistan's support for the FLN, Ben Bella had been given a Pakistani diplomatic passport to make his foreign travels possible in the face of an international manhunt coordinated by the French and their allies. Ben Bella also traveled on a Pakistani diplomatic passport during the years of his exile from Algeria in the 1980s.
caption: Ben Bella (right) after his arrest by the French army.
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