Houari Boumedienne

Houari Boumedienne, original name Mohammed Ben Brahim Boukharouba, (born

Aug. 23, 1927, Clauzel, near Guelma, Alg.—died Dec. 27, 1978, Algiers), army officer
who became president of Algeria in July 1965 following a coup d’etat.

Boukharouba’s service to Algeria began in the 1950s, during his country’s struggle for
independence from France, when, after studying at al-Azhar University in Cairo, he
joined the rebel forces and adopted the name Houari Boumedienne. The rebels
divided the country into military districts, and Boumedienne commanded the one
around Oran. In 1960 he became chief of staff of the National Liberation Front, and
he centred his efforts on raising an Algerian army in Morocco and Tunisia, out of
reach of the French.

After a peace treaty was signed with France in March 1962, tension among the
Algerian leaders increased, and that September Boumedienne occupied Algiers in
support of Ahmed Ben Bella. Ben Bella became president later in the year, and
Boumedienne was named minister of defense and vice president. Conflicts
developed between the two leaders, and in June 1965 Boumedienne effected a coup
against Ben Bella and installed himself as president. Boumedienne lacked widespread
popular support, and he governed at first through a 26-member revolutionary
council. As a result his leadership was weak and indecisive, but after an attempt by
military officers to overthrow his regime failed in December 1967, he asserted his
direct and undisputed leadership of Algeria.

In 1971 he imposed state control on the oil industry, at the cost of ending Algeria’s
special relationship with France. He risked war with Morocco in 1975 by trying to
gain territorial access to the Atlantic across the Spanish Sahara (later Western
Sahara). In 1976 his government issued a National Charter and then a new
constitution, both adopted by referendum. Negotiating important industrial
contracts with Western countries and at the same time maintaining close but
independent relations with the Soviet bloc, Boumedienne became a leading figure in
the nonaligned movement.