Algeria opposition leader Ait-Ahmed given state funeral

Thousands of Algerians on Friday attended a funeral to witness the remains of Hocine Ait-Ahmed, one of the fathers of Algeria’s struggle for independence from France. Ahmed who died in Switzerland at the age of 89 was also a longtime opposition figure.

His funeral was attended by Algerian officials, including Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal.

Ahmed was the last of the nine so-called “sons of Toussaint” who launched the uprising in November 1954. He was one of the founding members of the resistance to French colonial rule in then 1950s, and helped launched the independence war that facilitated the freedom of North African countries in 1962.

Thousands of Algerians gather for funeral of independence hero https://t.co/kXogWH6ZF7 #EuroNews

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Ahmed who was jailed by the French in 1956, and regained his freedom in 1962. He went into opposition when Ahmed Ben Bella became President and had remained as an opposition figure since then.

He was arrested in 1964 and condemned to death but later freed, and left for exile in Lausanne in 1966. Ahmed resigned as head of Socialist Forces Front (FFS) when his health started to fail in 2012.