Setif

Setif is a city and wilaya in Algeria in which an uprising occurred against the French colonizers. The popular uprising in 1945 caused the deaths of 90 Europeans and caused a crackdown by the French. According to the official figures released by the French government at the time, 1,500 Muslims were killed during the crushing of the uprising. The commander of the sub-division in Setif, Col. Bourdila, declared the death toll to be nearer to 7,500, a number which doubled after an official investigation into the matter. Finally, the American consul in Algiers estimated that between 40 000 and 45 000 Algerians had lost their lives in this particularly bloody episode of the country's history, figures which seemed to match Muslim public opinion.