Mandela Pays a Visit to the FLN (Front de Libération Nationale)
On 18 March 1962, Nelson Mandela and Robert Resha departed from Rabat in Morocco by train, heading for Oudja, in Morocco, which was the headquarters of the Algerian ALN (Armée de Libération Nationale), the armed wing of the Algerian Liberation Front (Front de Libération Nationale – FLN). They travelled in the company of Ahmed Ben Bella, the leader of the FLN, an Algerian guerrilla fighter and socialist revolutionary who played a central role during the Algerian national liberation war against France, as well as Colonel Parmidian.
On the same day, 18 March 1962, was the signing of the Évian Accords, a treaty signed in Évian-les-Bains, in France, between France and the Provisional Government of the Algerian Republic, the government-in-exile of FLN. The Accords ended the 1954 – 1962 Algerian War with a formal cease-fire proclaimed for 19 March 1962, and formalised the idea of a cooperative exchange between the two countries, as well as the full independence of Algeria from France. The Algerian War, also known as the Algerian Revolution or the Algerian War of Independence, was an important decolonisation war, a complex conflict characterised by sophisticated guerrilla warfare, which also became a civil war that took place mainly on the territory of Algeria, with repercussions in metropolitan France.
While still in Rabat before 18 March 1962, Mandela and Resha had spent several days with Dr Mustafa,
