Hero of Algeria's struggle for independence dies

Hocine Ait-Ahmed, one of the fathers of Algeria's struggle for independence from France and then a longtime opposition figure, died in Lausanne, Switzerland on Wednesday, his Socialist Forces Front party said.

Ait-Ahmed, 89, was the last of the nine so-called "sons of Toussaint", who launched the Algerian uprising against the French in November 1954.

He died in hospital after a long illness, said the party known by its acronym FFS, without elaborating.

Ait-Ahmed, who was jailed by the French in 1956, was freed after a ceasefire in 1962. He went into opposition when Ahmed Ben Bella became president in 1963, and had been an opposition figure ever since.

He was arrested in 1964 and condemned to death but freed, and left the country for exile in Lausanne in 1966.

He returned to Algeria in 1989 after the FFS was legalised when Algeria adopted its first pluralist constitution and his part came third in the country's first multi-party elections held in 1990.

However, Ait-Ahmed who opposed the military coup and annulment of elections in 1992 was forced to leave the country once again due to the troubles that ensued.

He stood as a candidate in the 1999 presidential election, but he and five others pulled out mid-campaign arguing that the vote was rigged in favour of Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who continues as president to this day.

His health began failing in 2012, and he resigned the following year as head of the FFS.

Ait-Ahmed was a vocal defender of the rights of Algerian Berbers, the indigenous people of North Africa, and had a considerable support base in Kabylie, Algeria's Berber heartland.