Who is Larbi Ben M'hidi, leader of the FLN whose assassination Emmanuel Macron admitted to by French soldiers?

President Emmanuel Macron recognized on Friday November 1 that the leader of the National Liberation Front (FLN) Larbi Ben M'hidi was “assassinated by French soldiers”on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the insurrection of November 1, 1954 which opened the Algerian war.

Emmanuel Macron “recognizes today that Larbi Ben M'hidi, national hero for Algeria and one of the six leaders of the FLN who launched the insurrection of November 1, 1954, was assassinated by French soldiers placed under the command of General Aussaresses“, indicated a press release from the Élysée.

Larbi Ben M'hidi, considered by many as the “Algerian Jean Moulin“, was born in 1923 in the village of El Kouahi in Aïn M'lila. He became active at the age of 16, leading a section of Algerian Muslim Scouts. When he was barely 20 years old, he became a very committed activist of the Algerian People's Party (PPA).

Arrested, tortured and murdered

Arrested after the massacres of May 8, 1945, he resumed the resistance upon his release from prison by clandestinely militant within the PPA, then in the Movement for the Triumph of Democratic Liberties (MTLD) and becomes one of the leaders of the Special Organization (OS). He was once again sentenced to ten years in prison after being accused by colonial France of “subversive activities”.

In 1954, Larbi Ben M'hidi became one of the nine founders of the Revolutionary Committee of Unity and Action (CRUA), ancestor of the FLN. In July, 22 founders of the FLN decided to launch the armed struggle for independence. On October 10, the CRUA became the FLN with an armed wing, the ALN. October 23, in Algiers, alongside Mohamed Boudiaf, Krim Belkacem, Rabah Bitat, Didouche Mourad and Mustapha Ben Boulaïd, Larbi Ben M'hidi defines the actions to be taken to launch the armed struggle against colonialism.

A true figure of the Algerian struggleLarbi Ben M'hidi was arrested on February 23, 1957 by paratroopers of the colonial army and tortured for several days, before being assassinated by the French army.

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