In the early 1950s he joined a group of expatriate Algerian nationalists in Cairo that included Ben Bella and in 1955 he joined resistance forces in Algeria operating against the French. He became chief-of-staff of the exiled National Liberation Front in Tunisia (1960–62). In March 1962 his forces occupied Algiers for Ben Bella after which a peace treaty was signed with France. He displaced Ben Bella in a coup in 1965, ruling until his death in 1978.