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Ahmed Ben Bella summary

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Below is the article summary. For the full article, see Ahmed Ben Bella.

Ahmed Ben Bella, (born Dec. 25, 1918, Maghnia, Alg.—died April 11, 2012, Algiers), First elected president of Algeria. After a French education, he was conscripted into the French army and received several awards during World War II (1939–45). After the war he took up arms to fight French rule in Algeria. In 1954 he and Mohamed Boudiaf founded the National Liberation Front (FLN), and Ben Bella became its political leader. He was imprisoned (1956–62) while the FLN fought for Algerian independence. He took control of the FLN’s Political Bureau after his release and was elected president in 1963. He was deposed in a coup led by Houari Boumedienne in 1965 and imprisoned until 1980. Thereafter he spent 10 years in exile, returning to Algeria in 1990. He led the Movement for Democracy in Algeria party (which he had established in 1984 while in exile) until the party was banned in 1997.