1000s attend burial ceremony of Algerian war hero

Tens of thousands of Algerians have taken part in the burial ceremony of Hocine Ait-Ahmed, the only remaining national hero of the country’s independence war against their French colonizers.

The mourning event was held on Friday near the mountain village of Ath Ahmedh in the Kabyle region, where Ait-Ahmed was born. It, however, turned into a chaotic protest rally by surging crowds of chanting mourners.

Crowds shouted “Algeria free and democratic,” the slogan of the party Ait-Ahmed founded decades ago, the Front of Socialist Forces, which remains active as one of the country’s political opposition forces.

Ait-Ahmed was one of the pioneers of the Algerian resistance movement against the colonization of the major African nation by France in 1954, triggering a fierce battle for the country’s independence.