Although it was always less visible to the French (and in fact remained almost entirely invisible until years later), the continuing dissension in the F.L.N. leadership still posed an even greater menace to the coherence of the whole movement than any number of defections, single or collective, at lower levels. Greatly exacerbated by the defeat in Algiers and the forced withdrawal of the C.C.E. from the city, internal rifts had brought the F.L.N. leadership to the brink of disaster by the spring of 1957. Once again the basic issue lay in the contention between the “interior” and the “exterior”; and, once again, the figure of Ramdane Abane was at the storm centre.

XREF: Connects to knowledge of Algerian War history and the F.L.N.'s interior/exterior organizational split.

Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Alge…, loc. 698