Regional factionalism and parochial anarchy eroded the Aurès insurgency
Evidence
From a largely military point of view, the worst situation had arisen in Wilaya 1, the Aurès, the very cradle of the revolt in its earliest days. Its leader, Ben Boulaid, had been captured, it will be recalled, in February 1955. Nine months later he achieved a remarkable escape from the condemned cell in Constantine prison, and on returning to the Aurès discovered that it had more or less reverted to its traditional state of parochial anarchy. Morale was very low, and his successor, Bachir Chihani, leader of the detachment that had ambushed the Monnerots, had aroused mounting opposition. Coming from the Nementchas, fifty miles away, he was regarded as a “foreigner”; he was accused of pederasty and other more savage excesses; and he appears to have made a series of grave tactical errors. — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 442
Categorization
- XREF: Internal F.L.N. factional violence prefigures post-independence power struggles across Africa. — connects to: The Aurès mountains’ poverty made it a land of unvanquishable guerrillas; Guerrilla warfare made French suppression of the insurgency fail; Revolutionary cadres divorced from the masses cannot sustain a revolution (+5 more)
Related
Broader Connections
- Siyad-era factionalism mixed clan, ideology, and colonial tradition divides
#exemplifies(0.60) - Somali clan maneuvering between rival empires weakened the Somali position
#exemplifies(0.55)