After Algeria won its independence from France in 1962, the ALN was converted into the regular Algerian People's National Armed Forces.

[2] The ALN established camps across the borders of Tunisia and Morocco to provide logistical support and arms to their fighters in Algeria.

A referendum, held in Algeria on 1 July as part of the Évian Agreement, led to an overwhelming victory for the separatists, who declared independence two days later.

[1] On the morning of 5 July 1962 seven companies of ALN soldiers entering the city of Oran were fired on by some Pied-Noirs, white Europeans who were born in colonial Algeria.

An outraged Arab mob swept into the Pied-Noir neighbourhoods, which had already been largely vacated, and attacked the estimated 40,000 remaining pieds-noirs there.