Sétif and Guelma Massacres (1945)

Tue May 08, 1945

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Image: Flag of the Algerian Nationalists in 1945, by Reda Kerbouche [Wikipedia]

On this day in 1945, French colonial authorities in the Algerian city of Sétif fired on marchers celebrating the surrender of Nazi Germany. In response, Algerians initiated an uprising against the colonizers that was brutally suppressed.

Anti-colonial Algerians attacked French settlements in rural Sétif, killing approximately 100 people of European origin. There were also attacks in the district of Guelma that lasted until June 1945.

In response, French colonial forces slaughtered slaughtered many thousands of Algerians (the total number is unknown, estimates vary from 6,000 to 30,000). The French summarily executed Muslim civilians, and there were mass graves. Villages were bombed and shelled by French aircraft and ships.

The Sétif uprising and the repression that followed marked a turning point in relations between France and the Muslim population, which had been subjugated since 1830. Nine years later, a general uprising began in Algeria, leading to independence from France in March 1962 with the signing of the Évian Accords.