Algiers will recover the remains of 24 Algerian fighters killed in the 19th century during the French colonization, Abdelmadjid Tebboune announced Thursday. "In a few hours, Algerian military planes from France will land at Houari Boumediene International Airport with the remains of 24 leaders of the Popular Resistance and their companions," said the Algerian president. The latter statements were made during a ceremony to award ranks and medals to officers of the National People's Army (PNA).
Soldiers "deprived of their natural and human rights"
Cheikh Bouziane, the leader of the Zaâtcha revolt in eastern Algeria, is among the repatriated bodies. He had been captured by the French in 1849, then shot and beheaded. Other figures of the Algerian resistance, the bodies of Bou Amar Ben Kedida and Si Mokhtar Ben Kouider Al Titraoui, all considered as martyrs, will also be brought back to Algeria. For President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, these are "the remains of 24 leaders of the Popular Resistance who have been deprived of their natural and human right to be buried for over 170 years".
Their remains were, until then, kept at the National Museum of Natural History
Reclaimed for years by Algiers, these mortuary remains, composed mainly of skulls, were kept in the collections of the National Museum of Natural History. During a visit to Algiers on December 6, 2017, French President Emmanuel Macron undertook to return the Algerian human remains stored at the Musée de l'Homme, one of the Museum's sites.