M'hamed Hadj Yala (Arabic: محمد يعلى), also known as El Hadj Yala, was an Algerian politician who served in various positions in the Provisional Government of the Algerian Republic and Algeria, including as the Minister of Commerce, Finance, and the Interior and as ambassadors to the USSR and China.

Yala was born on December 23, 1927, in to a Berber family in Tifra, Béjaïa Province, French Algeria.

In 1954, at the outbreak of the Algerian War, he became the political leader in the FLN in Wilaya III.

[3] In 1964, Yala served as ambassador of the Provisional Government of the Algerian Republic (GPRA) to China.

[6][7] As wali of Constantine, Yala joined President Houari Boumédiène in a 1974 trip to China with other ministers.