Setif massacre

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Map of Algeria showing Setif province

The Setif massacre was an attack on Algerian protesters by colonial French soldiers on May 8, 1945, the same day that Germany surrendered in World War II.

Anti-French sentiment had been building across Algeria for months, leading to thousand-person protests in such cities as Mostaganem in the previous weeks. With the end of the European war, fifteen thousand protesters took to the streets of Setif, a town in northern Algeria, to press new demands for independence on the colonial government.

The French Army responded with overwhelming force. At around 9 AM on May 8, a crowd chanting "Vive l'independence!" marched on the French forces after the French forces had shot at the flag-carriers, angry to see a flag other than the French flag in the then French colony. French commander General Duval gave the order to fire on the largely unarmed crowds, using machine guns, killing thousands. Saal Bouzid, a young boy carrying the Algerian flag, was among the first to fall, making him an instant martyr to the resistance movement.

The French moved swiftly to contain the protests, attacking the neighborhoods and surrounding villages of both Setif and nearby Guelma with artillery and air force bombers. Arbitrary murder and rape by the French forces ensued. The attacks continued until the formal surrender of the tribes on May 22. The ultimate death toll remains contentious, with Algeria claiming more than 45,000 dead, while initial French estimates claimed only 1,500 casualties; France later revised its estimate up to 20,000 dead. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, both these estimates are inflated and the actual toll was 6,000 and 8,000. In a series of reprisal assassinations following the violence, 104 Europeans were killed. More than half of the victims were women or children.

In February 2005, Hubert Colin de Verdière, France's ambassador to Algeria, formally apologized for the massacre, calling it an "inexcusable tragedy."[link] It was the most explicit comments by the French state on the event. [link]

Algerian State sees the French rule as genocide and the Setif massacre as the beginning of this genocide.

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