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In his speech at a conference commemorating this anniversary, the minister said that the inhabitants of Ouargla “rose up, in response to the call of the Revolution’s leaders, to demonstrate on 27 February 1962, against the French occupation and thwarted its project to divide Algeria by separating the Sahara from the rest of the national territory in order to plunder its wealth.”

The demonstrations helped “expose the colonial propaganda” and represented “a clear response on the Sahara issue that led to the halt of negotiations between the Provisional Government of the Algerian Republic (GPRA) and the colonial administration,” the minister added.

This historic event was intended as “a popular referendum for allegiance to national unity aimed at fully quashing the colonial separatist scheme,” the minister pointed out, noting that the protesters’ reaction had “paved the way for the Algerian side during the Evian negotiations to stick to their unwavering position regarding territorial integrity.”

These demonstrations were also a response to the colonial France, affirming that the FLN was the sole representative of the Algerian people as stated in the 1 November 1954 Declaration, Rebiga emphasized.

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