adminNo cause of death was reported, but Ben Bella had twice been treated for respiratory problems at the military hospital of Ain Naadja.
“Today we lost one of modern Algeria’s bravest leaders,” said Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika in a message of condolence read on state television as he announced eight days of national mourning.
Ben Bella will lie in state at Algiers’ People’s Palace from noon on Thursday, with his funeral due to take place on Friday, state media said.
A former soldier in the French army, Ben Bella was a key figure in Algeria’s years-long revolt against French rule, serving time in prison until his release as the north African nation gained independence in 1962, and becoming president in 1963.
But he was overthrown in a military coup in 1965 and kept under house arrest until 1980. After a subsequent decade in exile in Switzerland, he was pardoned in 1990 and returned to Algeria.
Ben Bella was born in 1916 to a peasant family in Marnia, on Algeria’s border with Morocco. He joined the French army in his late teens, rising to the rank of senior warrant officer, and playing top-flight football for Olympique de Marseille.
He fought with distinction with the Free French Forces in Italy during World War II and won five French decorations including the prestigious Military Medal. — AFP.
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