Ahmed Ben Bella (Arabic: أحمد بن بلة), born officially on December 25, 1916 in Maghnia near Tlemcen in Oranie, in the northwest of Algeria (then French departments), and died on April 11, 2012 in Algiers, is a fighter for Algerian independence and an Algerian statesman. He was head of government from 1962 to 1963 and then the first president of the Republic from 1963 to 1965.