Hocine Aït Ahmed, who has died aged 89, was one of the key figures in Algeria’s fight for independence, and could conceivably have become president. But he was also highly principled, and, once the country was free from the French, always found himself at odds with those who did take control of the government, whether properly elected or not.
The commander of the first guerrillas to fight French colonial rule in 1948, he was also the last survivor of the nine revolutionary leaders who launched the FLN (National Liberation Front) in November 1954. Yet after independence was eventually achieved in 1962 he split with the FLN over military control of the government and created Algeria’s first opposition party, the Socialist Forces Front (FFS). After 23 years of exile in Switzerland, he returned in 1989 amid rising protests against the FLN.
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