Oran massacre of 1962

The Oran massacre of 1962 (July 5 - July 7, 1962) was an internecine slaughter of minority Algerians with European (predominantly French) ancestry. It took place in Oran, Algeria, beginning on the day Algeria declared its independent status, and ended on July 7, 1962. Estimates of the death toll vary from a low of 95 to a high of 3,500; and 453 disappeared.

The Algerian War had been underway since 1954. The Evian Accords of March 18 1962, brought an end to the conflict. The Accords, which were reached during a cease-fire between French armed forces and the Algerian nationalist organization the Front de libération nationale (FLN), began the process of transfer of power from the French to the Algerians.

The Evian Accords intended to guarantee the rights and safety of the pieds-noirs, French and Spanish colonial residents, many born in Algeria, and indigenous Sephardi Jews in an independent Algeria. However, rumors had already spread among the pieds-noirs that their choice would be between "the suitcase or the coffin". With armed conflict apparently at an end, the French government loosened security on Algeria's border with Morocco, allowing the FLN freer movement within Algeria. The flight of French pieds-noirs and pro-French native Algerians began in April 1962, and by late May hundreds of thousands had emigrated from Algeria, chiefly to metropolitan France.

Independence had been bitterly opposed by the pieds-noirs and many members of the French military, and the anti-independence Organisation armée secrète (OAS) started a campaign of open rebellion against the French government, declaring its military to be an "occupying power". The OAS declared a "scorched earth" policy to deny French-built facilities and development to the future FLN government. The OAS engaged in a bombing campaign that killed an estimated 10 to 15 people in Oran daily in May 1962. Its scorched earth policy climaxed on June 7 1962, when the OAS Delta Commando burned Algiers Library and its 60,000 volumes and blew up Oran's town hall, the municipal library, and four schools.

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