Mourad Didouche
Mourad Didouche was one of the 6 leaders who launched the Algerian war of independence on 1 November 1954. He was born in July 1927 in La Redoute, later El Mouradia, in Algiers. He died on 18 January 1955 near Condé Smendou, later Zighoud Youcef, north of Constantine, aged 27, the first of the 6 to die.
Mourad Didouche was one of the 6 leaders who launched the Algerian war of independence on 1 November 1954. He was born in July 1927 in La Redoute, later El Mouradia, in Algiers. He died on 18 January 1955 near Condé Smendou, later Zighoud Youcef, north of Constantine, aged 27, the first of the 6 to die.
His family came from Ibeskriène, a village in the commune of Aghribs, in Kabylia.
Didouche studied at the technical lycée of the Ruisseau district, in Algiers, and worked for the railways. In 1946 he founded El Amal, a troop of the Algerian Muslim Scouts.
As a teenager he joined the Algerian People's Party (PPA), and in 1947 he was a founding member of its secret Organisation spéciale. Later he worked for the movement in France, alongside Mohamed Boudiaf.
In 1954 he took part in the meeting of the Group of 22 and became one of the 6 leaders of the uprising. He helped draft the Proclamation of 1 November 1954 and then led Zone II, in the north of the Constantine region.
Rue Didouche Mourad, one of the main streets of central Algiers, bears his name. In January 2026 a ceremony at Oued Boukerker marked the 71st anniversary of his death.
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