HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The Oujda group or Oujda clan was a group of
military A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distin ...
officer An officer is a person who has a position of authority in a hierarchical organization. The term derives from Old French ''oficier'' "officer, official" (early 14c., Modern French ''officier''), from Medieval Latin ''officiarius'' "an officer," fr ...
s and
politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...
s in
Algeria ) , image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Algiers , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , relig ...
that operated during the
War of Independence This is a list of wars of independence (also called liberation wars). These wars may or may not have been successful in achieving a goal of independence. List See also * Lists of active separatist movements Presented below is a list of ...
(1954–62). After the independence of Algeria, the Oujda group dominated Algerian politics after the Algerian summer crisis in 1962.Ali Haroun, L'été de la discorde, Algérie, Casbah éditions, Alger, 2000.


History

The Oujda group was formed around
Col In geomorphology, a col is the lowest point on a mountain ridge between two peaks.Whittow, John (1984). ''Dictionary of Physical Geography''. London: Penguin, 1984, p. 103. . It may also be called a gap. Particularly rugged and forbidding col ...
.
Houari Boumédiène Houari Boumédiène ( ar,  ; ALA-LC: ''Hawwārī Būmadyan''; born Mohammed Ben Brahim Boukherouba; 23 August 1932 – 27 December 1978) was an Algerian politician and army colonel who served as Chairman of the Revolutionary Council of A ...
, posted in the Moroccan town of
Oujda Oujda ( ar, وجدة; ber, ⵡⵓⵊⴷⴰ, Wujda) is a major Moroccan city in its northeast near the border with Algeria. Oujda is the capital city of the Oriental region of northeastern Morocco and has a population of about 558,000 people. It ...
. He would later become chief of staff in the
Armée de Libération Nationale The National Liberation Army or ALN ( ar, جيش التحرير الوطني الجزائري, translit=Jaīš al-taḥrīr al-waṭanī al-jazāʾirī; french: Armée de libération nationale) was the armed wing of the nationalist National Libe ...
(ALN), which was the armed wing of the Front de Libération Nationale (FLN), the main
nationalist Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a in-group and out-group, group of peo ...
organization fighting French colonial control over Algeria. As chief of staff, Boumédiène entered into conflict with the FLN's
government-in-exile A government in exile (abbreviated as GiE) is a political group that claims to be a country or semi-sovereign state's legitimate government, but is unable to exercise legal power and instead resides in a foreign country. Governments in exile u ...
, the GPRA, which towards the end of the war attempted to dismiss him. He then supported an alliance of FLN politicians against the GPRA's provisional post-independence government, and marched the ALN towards
Algiers Algiers ( ; ar, الجزائر, al-Jazāʾir; ber, Dzayer, script=Latn; french: Alger, ) is the capital and largest city of Algeria. The city's population at the 2008 Census was 2,988,145Census 14 April 2008: Office National des Statistiques d ...
to occupy it. The GPRA was supported by Wilayas III (
Kabylia Kabylia ('' Kabyle: Tamurt n Leqbayel'' or ''Iqbayliyen'', meaning "Land of Kabyles", '','' meaning "Land of the Tribes") is a cultural, natural and historical region in northern Algeria and the homeland of the Kabyle people. It is part of the ...
) and IV ( Algérois), and the Oujda group was supported by the border army. The border army defeated the GPRA and entered Algiers on 9 September 1962.
Ahmed Ben Bella Ahmed Ben Bella ( ar, أحمد بن بلّة '; 25 December 1916 – 11 April 2012) was an Algerian politician, soldier and socialist revolutionary who served as the head of government of Algeria from 27 September 1962 to 15 September 1963 ...
became president, and Boumédiène minister of defense. In this role Boumédiène continued to exercise a powerful influence over the regime, through the
Algerian army french: Armée nationale populaire , image = ANP.png , alt = , caption = People's National Army emblem , image2 = , alt2 = , caption2 = , motto = ...
. To secure his grip over the army, he began promoting and supporting his old friends and colleagues of the Oujda years. These men and their entourage became known as the Oujda group, forming a powerful pro-Boumédiène faction within the political and military ranks of the one-party state, but in their turn dependent on him for their positions. After rising tension between the two men and their supporters, Ben Bella in 1965 confronted Boumédiène by attempting to dismiss his close associate, foreign minister
Abdelaziz Bouteflika Abdelaziz Bouteflika (; ar, عبد العزيز بوتفليقة, ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Būtaflīqa ; 2 March 1937 – 17 September 2021) was an Algerian politician and diplomat who served as President of Algeria from 1999 to his resignation in 201 ...
, and by announcing that he soon would be reassigning responsibilities within the army. Boumédiène reacted by staging a military coup d'état, in which Ben Bella was "
disappeared An enforced disappearance (or forced disappearance) is the secret abduction or imprisonment of a person by a state or political organization, or by a third party with the authorization, support, or acquiescence of a state or political organiza ...
" (years later, he was released after having been held isolated in
house arrest In justice and law, house arrest (also called home confinement, home detention, or, in modern times, electronic monitoring) is a measure by which a person is confined by the authorities to their residence. Travel is usually restricted, if all ...
), and taking personal control over the country by means of a military junta. His associates from Oujda now became the pillar of his regime, but as Boumédiène tightened his grip on power, most of the clan's members were gradually purged. Still, a more generally defined "old guard", including some of the Oujda men, would continue to exercise influence after Boumédiène's death in 1978, over his successor
Chadli Bendjedid Chadli Bendjedid ( ar, الشاذلي بن جديد; ALA-LC: ''ash-Shādhilī bin Jadīd''; 14 April 1929 – 6 October 2012) was the third President of Algeria and an Algerian Nationalist. His presidential term of office ran from 9 February 1 ...
. Bendjedid consciously strove to marginalise these men, and to replace them with his own loyalists. This policy became informally known as de-Boumédiènisation. The early 1980s therefore marked the end of whatever remained of the Oujda clan as a (somewhat) cohesive faction within Algerian politics, even if FLN "conservatives" favoring Boumédiène-style policies continued to challenge Chadli from within until they were finally purged following the October Riots in 1988. In 1999, an old Oujda clan stalwart, the former foreign minister
Abdelaziz Bouteflika Abdelaziz Bouteflika (; ar, عبد العزيز بوتفليقة, ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Būtaflīqa ; 2 March 1937 – 17 September 2021) was an Algerian politician and diplomat who served as President of Algeria from 1999 to his resignation in 201 ...
(who, coincidentally, was born in Oujda), made an unexpected comeback, winning the Algerian presidential elections. He had been convicted for
corruption Corruption is a form of dishonesty or a criminal offense which is undertaken by a person or an organization which is entrusted in a position of authority, in order to acquire illicit benefits or abuse power for one's personal gain. Corruption m ...
in 1981, soon after Chadli's takeover, in what was viewed as one of the most important steps of de-Boumédiènisation, and in 1983 he had gone into exile. Bouteflika was reelected for a second term in 2004, and then, for a third term, in 2009 and a fourth term in 2014.{{Cite web, url=https://www.trtworld.com/africa/as-algerians-protest-could-the-sun-be-setting-on-the-bouteflika-era-24645, title=As Algerians protest, could the sun be setting on the Bouteflika era?, last=, first=, date=4 March 2019, website=TRTWorld, archive-url=, archive-date=, access-date=11 April 2019


See also

*
History of Algeria Much of the history of Algeria has taken place on the fertile coastal plain of North Africa, which is often called the Maghreb (or Maghreb). North Africa served as a transit region for people moving towards Europe or the Middle East, thus, the reg ...


References

Rebel groups in Algeria Algerian rebels Algerian War Oujda Algeria–Morocco relations