Algeria celebrated Friday with a show of force the 70th anniversary of the outbreak of the war of independence against France, with which relations are once again very tense. A two and a half hour military parade commemorated the night of November 1, 1954, during which around thirty attacks by the National Liberation Front (FLN) targeting symbols of the colonial presence left ten people dead.
The date entered the history of France as “All Saints' Day” and that of Algeria as “the Glorious Revolution” which led to the country's independence in 1962. This bloody war claimed one and a half million lives. Algerian “martyrs”, according to Algiers, 500,000 dead including 400,000 Algerians according to French historians.
Before the start of the parade attended by the presidents of Tunisia, Kais Saied, of Mauritania, Mohamed Ould Cheikh El Ghazouani, and of the Libyan presidential council, Mohamed el-Menfi, Mr. Tebboune stressed the importance of a “ memorable birthday embodying glory, dignity and pride.”
Tensions between France and Algeria
It is “an opportunity to recall that Algeria, which triumphed over colonialism yesterday, continues to achieve victories with complete confidence,” he said. “We ensured that this military parade matches the dimensions and symbolism of this 70th anniversary and the level of sacrifices” of the architects of the 1954 insurrection, he added.
Mr. Tebboune, however, did not make any allusion to the new phase of freezing with France, the former colonial power, caused by the announcement at the end of July by Paris of its “reinforced support” for an autonomy plan. under “Moroccan sovereignty” for the disputed territory of Western Sahara where Algiers supports the separatists of the Polisario Front, whose leader Brahim Ghali was also in the stands in Algiers.
No reaction to Macron's announcement
No official comment either on the announcement by President Emmanuel Macron of the recognition of the assassination in 1957 of one of the heroes of the November 1 insurrection, Larbi Ben M'hidi, “by French soldiers”. After laying a wreath at the Martyrs' Monument in Algiers, President Tebboune, standing in an open-roof vehicle, reviewed the military formations, accompanied by the Chief of Staff General Said Chengriha.
The show began with aerial parades performed over the Bay of Algiers, by tactical transport and reconnaissance planes and fighter and bomber planes. The Algerian army also paraded missiles and dozens of tanks as well as columns of soldiers and security forces on the vast avenue adjoining the Great Mosque of Algiers, to the applause of thousands of people.
By 2023, the defense budget of Algeria, one of Africa's main military powers, had more than doubled from the previous year to $22 billion, a level at which it was maintained this year. For 2025, the finance law provides for a budget increasing again to around 25 billion dollars. Russia is Algeria's main supplier of military equipment.
