Ali Yahia Abdennour was born on January 18, 1921, in the village Lemkherda, former section of Taqa in the town of Aït Yahia,, which is now wilaya of Tizi Ouzou, in what was French Algeria. He did his primary education at Tizi Ouzou and finished his secondary studies at Médéa.
Abdennour becomes a teacher and was assigned for four years to Affreville, today Khemis Miliana, birthplace of the future commander of Wilaya IV Si M'hammed Bougara whom he later met in hiding. In 1943 it is mobilized by the Alliance who took over Algeria from the Vichy France. He is decorated the following year. In 1945, he joined the Algerian People's Party-Movement for the Triumph of Democratic Liberties at the time of Algeria war and he left the PPA-MTLD party during the Berber crisis in 1949. Ali Yahia Abdennour joined the FLN in 1955. In 1956, he was arrested and later was placed under house arrest, from 1957 to 1960. Following his release in 1961, Ali Yahia Abdennour became secretary general of the UGTA. After independence, he was elected deputy for the Wilaya of Tizi Ouzou Province. In 1963 he joined the rebellion of Hocine Aït Ahmed and later stood against Ahmed Ben Bella..
Ali Yahia Abdennour became Minister of Public affairs, Transport, then Minister of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform for a year in the government of Houari Boumediène, between 1965 and 1968. After studying law, he became a lawyer. He was arrested in 1983 and released in 1984. In 1985, two groups of Algiers, one led by Omar Ménouar and the group of Tizi Ouzou represented by Ali Yahia Yahia, competed to control the League of Human Rights of Algeria which was not yet officially established. Ali Yahia Abdennour could not be elected president, because he was perceived to be close to the Berber movement. Ali Yahia formed another league immediately, but he could be arrested. According to the Algerian authorities, he had no approval. . After LADH was established by the Algerian authorities in 1987 and chaired by lawyer Miloud Brahimi, Ali Yahia was chosen as Honorary President of the Algerian League for the Defense of Human Rights which he had founded together with Saïd Saadi and Arezki Ait Larbi. Ali Yahia Abdennour opposed the interruption of the 1991 electoral process and defended some of the leaders of the FIS. In 1994, he participated in the Sant' Egidio conference in Rome. In 2011, he took part in the call of the National Coordination for Change and Democracy.. On 8 October 2017, together with Ahmed Taleb Ibrahimi and Rachid Benyelles they declared the state of incapacity of President Bouteflika, who had been affected by a stroke... On May 20, 2018, he lost his eldest son, the surgeon Amokrane. .
On 18 May 2019, in the midst of the 2019–2020 Algerian protests together with Ahmed Taleb Ibrahimi and Rachid Benyelles they called, to postpone the 2019 Algerian presidential election and to launch a dialogue between the army and representatives of the demonstrators to put in place a political transition.
