Oujda Group

These men and their entourage became known as the Oujda group, forming a powerful pro-Boumédiène faction within the political and military ranks of the one-party state, but in their turn dependent on him for their positions.

After rising tension between the two men and their supporters, Ben Bella in 1965 confronted Boumédiène by attempting to dismiss his close associate, foreign minister Abdelaziz Bouteflika, and by announcing that he soon would be reassigning responsibilities within the army.

His associates from Oujda then became the pillar of his regime, but as Boumédiène tightened his grip on power, most of the clan's members were gradually purged.

[4] Still, a more generally defined "old guard", including some of the Oujda men, would continue to exercise influence after Boumédiène's death in 1978, over his successor Chadli Bendjedid.

The early 1980s therefore marked the end of whatever remained of the Oujda clan as a (somewhat) cohesive faction within Algerian politics, even if FLN "conservatives" favoring Boumédiène-style policies continued to challenge Chadli from within until they were finally purged following the October Riots in 1988.