Although his exact date of birth is unknown, his is from Maghniyah, near the Moroccan border. His military background during World War II serving the French army stands out. However, after the war, he participated in an armed fight against the metropolis by attacking, for example, Oran´s Central Post Office in 1949 in order to obtain funds. Although he was jailed, he was able to escape, and in the 1950s he founded the NLF (National Liberation Front) and became a member of the revolutionary committee against France. For years he led the resistance, until his exile to Libya.

He was detained once again and held until Algeria´s independence in March of 1962, when he was elected president of the newly proclaimed republic, whose constitution was based on a single party state. At that moment, Bem Bella began his efforts in favour of nationalising the nation´s services and modernisation. However, discontentedness within the NLF, the system´s partiality and foreign pressure (border problems) led to a coup d'état that ended the term of office of the first president of an independent Algeria.

After being jailed for years and then in silence, he attempted to return to politics, without success. His ideology changed, and he renounced the concept of a single party state. Since then, he has distanced himself from active politics and instead opted to criticise corruption, poor governing and armed fighting, and becoming a pacifist.  In 1981, he was even named president of the International Islamic Human Rights Commission.

Source: Wikipedia