18 Facts About Mohamed Boudiaf

Mohamed Boudiaf, called Si Tayeb el Watani, was an Algerian political leader and one of the founders of the revolutionary National Liberation Front that led the Algerian War of Independence.

Mohamed Boudiaf returned in 1992 to accept a position of Chairman of the High Council of State, but was assassinated four months later.

Mohamed Boudiaf was born in Ouled Madhi, French Algeria, to a family of erstwhile nobility which had lost its standing and influence during colonial times.

Mohamed Boudiaf's education was cut short after primary school by poor health and his increasing activism in the nascent nationalist movement.

Mohamed Boudiaf was responsible for organizing the OS network in the Setif region, storing arms, collecting funds and preparing guerrilla forces.

Mohamed Boudiaf was sentenced in absentia to 10 years of prison by the French authorities, but avoided arrest.

Mohamed Boudiaf was among them, after falling out with Messali, whom he accused of authoritarian tendencies.

In July 1954, the CRUA-aligned Mohamed Boudiaf survived an assassination attempt by his former comrades-in-arms, wounded and left for dead on an Algiers sidewalk.

Mohamed Boudiaf was by this time a main leader of the movement, and emerged as an important member of the exiled leadership working from Cairo and Algeria's neighbouring countries.

Mohamed Boudiaf was not released until immediately before the independence of Algeria in 1962, after a brutal eight-year war that had cost between 350,000 and 1.5 million lives.

The increasingly marginalized Mohamed Boudiaf protested these developments, and founded a clandestine opposition party, the PRS, which briefly revolted against the FLN's single-party government.

Mohamed Boudiaf was forced into exile, and settled in neighbouring Morocco.

Mohamed Boudiaf quickly accepted, and was instantly signed into the post.

The political scene remained chaotic, the economy was fraying, and Mohamed Boudiaf seemed unable to effectively carry out the reforms he had promised.

Mohamed Boudiaf himself has gained considerably in political stature after his death, and is referred to by many political commentators as a martyr for Algeria, with many arguing that he could have been the country's savior.

Mohamed Boudiaf was sentenced to death in a closed trial in 1995, but the sentence was not carried out.

The murder has been subject to significant controversy and a major magnet for Algerian conspiracy theories, with many suggesting that Mohamed Boudiaf was in fact assassinated by the military establishment responsible for the coup.

Mohamed Boudiaf remains insistent that his death has not been properly investigated.