Biography of Mohamed Khider

Born in Algiers in 1912, of modest condition. Since the age of 17, he was in the casbah cellars discussing the injustice his Algerian brothers were suffering from.

In 1934, he joined the ENA (North African Star).

On August 2, 1936 he became a member of the PPA (Algerian People's Party)

In 1937, he was elected secretary of the Algiers office of PPA and will also assume the functions of treasurer of the Algiers marine sectio

The PPA was dissolved during the Second World War, its members were tracked down and, in 28/03/1941, Mohamed KHIDER was arrested for endangering the security of the State. He was imprisoned until 1944.

After release, he was arrested again in 1945 after the Sétif massacre of 8/05/1945 and imprisoned at the Bouzérela military fort.

Released again in 1946, Mohamed KHIDER will be one of the artisans of the transformation of the PPA party, which was divided into two parties, one legal, the MTLD, the other secret, the OS.

On November 10th of that year he was elected deputy of Algiers on the list of MTLD at the French National Assembly; His election was validated on 31/01/1947. He was appointed member of the pension committee, of the Family, Population, Public Health and the Press Committee on 30/01/1948.

In April 1949, he was involved in the attack on Oran’s post office, an attack prepared by the OS. He was the subject of a request for waiver of parliamentary immunity.

At the end of his term in June 1951, he left France for Egypt via Switzerland to avoid an arrest.

In Cairo, in October 1952, KHIDER took over the leadership of the Algerian section of the Arab Maghreb bureau as a delegate of the MTLD.

Towards the end of 1951 a split occurred within the MTLD. “Messalistes” and “Centralistes”.

To try to overcome these quarrels the CRUA (Revolutionary Committee of Unity and Action) is created by those who have been called the 9 historical leaders including Med KHIDER, Med BOUDIAF, Mustapha BEN BOULAID, Larbi BEN MHIDI, Rabah BITAT, Mourad DIDOUCHE, Krim BELKACEM, Hocine AIT AHMED and Ahmed BEN BELLA).

On October 10th, 1954, the members of the CRUA set the date of the insurrection to Monday, November 1st, 1954 and created two organizations, One was political, the FLN, and the other was military, the ALN.

On August 20th, 1956, during the clandestine congress of the Soummam, the political leadership of the FLN was entrusted to the CNRA (National Council of the Algerian Revolution), composed of 34 members including KHIDER.

On October 19th, 1956, KHIDER accompanied by AIT AHMED, BEN BELLA, BOUDIAF and LACHERAF went to Morocco to meet Sultan MOHAMED V. It was to discuss the meeting to be held in Tunis for the creation of a North African confederation which would remain bound to France in a way still to be determined. The creation of a North African confederation was to solve all the outstanding problems.

On October 22th, 1956, the plane carrying KHIDER and his 4 companions from Rabat to Tunis was hijacked on Algiers by the French military aviation. The 5 leaders are questioned and then transferred to Paris to Fresnes prison.

In September 1958, KHIDER and his fellow detainees, AIT-AHMED, BOUDIADF, BITAT and BEN BELLA, were appointed Ministers of State of the GPRA.

At the end of March 1962, after the Evian agreements, the five detainees, including Mohamed KHIDER, were released.

After the independence of the country he was appointed to the political bureau (BP) of the National Liberation Front (FLN). After a brief period, he resigned. Arrested and imprisoned he joined, at his liberation, Morocco and France where he settled until 1966, the year of his departure to Madrid (Spain), where he was assassinated January 4rd, 1967.

The University of Biskra has been called Mohamed KHIDER since: July 07, 1992.