1912 - 1967
Algerian revolutionary.
The son of a poor family from Biskra, Mohamed Khider was born in Algiers, the capital of Algeria, and became a bus driver/fare collector. He joined the Etoile Nord Africaine (ENA; Star of North Africa) of Messali al-Hadj and the Parti du Peuple Algérien (PPA; Algerian People's Party). He favored armed rebellion against the French, although he tried to reconcile Messalists and centralists of the Mouvement pour le Triomphe des Libertés Démocratiques (MTLD; Movement for the Triumph of Democratic Liberties). As a cofounder, Khider was known as an historic chief of the Front de Libération Nationale (FLN; National Liberation Front). During the Algerian War of Independence (1954 - 1962), he served with the "external" FLN and in 1956 was involved with initial French government contacts. He was seized along with other historic chiefs (Ahmed Ben Bella, Hocine ait Ahmed, Mohamed Boudiaf, and Rabah Bitat) in the infamous skyjacking of an Air Maroc airplane in October 1956.
After the war, he became secretary-general of the FLN but later disagreed with Ben Bella concerning the relationship between the party and the army in independent Algeria. Thereupon, he resigned and went into exile but kept a substantial sum of the party funds (to be used by the Algerian opposition), which was invested in a Swiss account. Khider was assassinated in Madrid in 1967, but the Algerian government failed to recover the funds. Khider's reputation was later officially rehabilitated in 1984.
Bibliography
Horne, Alistair. A Savage War of Peace: Algeria, 1954 - 1962, revised edition. New York: Penguin, 1987.
— PHILLIP C. NAYLOR
