Petit Omar or Little Omar was the nickname of Yacef Omar (1944–1957), a notable figure of the Algerian War for Independence.[1]
Yacef Omar was born in January 1944 at the Casbah of Algiers in a Kabyle family.[2] Son of Dahbia(sister of Yacef Saâdi), and of Ahmed, he was the third child in a family of nine children.[3] He is the nephew of Yacef Saadi, leader of the Autonomous Zone of Algiers. Little Omar was the liaison officer between the fighters and the leaders of the FLN (National Liberation Front) during the “Battle of Algiers”. The mission of a liaison officer is to send messages to members of the FLN, to spy on the French soldiers, to signal their presence, etc. He was handed this mission which had great importance.[4]
Omar grew in the big familial house with Yacef Saadi. This allowed him to see the figureheads of the Algerian Revolution like Abane Ramdane, Krim Belkacem, Colonel Ouamrane, Rabah Bitat, and Ali La Pointe who visited his uncle regularly. Courier between the militants and the FLN leaders, he succeeded to cross all police roadblocks and elude the French paratroopers in the hardest moments of the Battle of Algiers. He knew his neighborhood like the back of his hand. Houria Bourihed, whose family was instrumental in the Algerian war for independence remembers Omar not only as a heroic child but also as an expert player of marbles and other street games.[5]
On the night of October 8, 1957, with the help of labourer Laknan Abdullah, who showed the hideout of FLN resistance fighters to the French, the French Army paratrooper commandos of the 1st Foreign Parachute Regiment destroyed the house where he was hiding following their refusal to surrender, killing him along with Hassiba Ben Bouali, Ali La Pointe, Hamid Bouhamidi and 16 others.[6] He was 13 years old at the time of his martyrdom.[7]
A new ultramodern hospital located at Draa Ben Khedda was named “Yacef Omar Hospital” in tribute to the child of the Casbah. His uncle Yacef Saadi was present the day of the inauguration on February 18, 2014.
Omar is played by Mohamed Ben Kassen in the 1966 Italian-Algerian movie The Battle of Algiers.