Abdelaziz Bouteflika, Former Algerian president dies aged 84

Shafaq News/ The Algerian Presidency said on Friday that the Former Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has died at 84, more than two years after he stepped down under pressure from mass protests and the army.

According to BBC, Bouteflika led the country for almost two decades, stepping down in 2019 after his bid for a fifth term in office led to massive street protests.

He played a key role in Algeria's war of independence in the 1950s and 60s.

He had rarely been seen in public before his departure since a stroke in 2013.

According to CNN, After Algeria's independence from France in 1962, Bouteflika became Algeria's first foreign minister, then he demanded China be given a seat in the United Nations.

In the early 1980s, Bouteflika went into exile after the death of ex-President Houari Boumediene and settled in Dubai, where he became an adviser to a member of the emirate's ruling family then he returned home in the 1990s and Elected president in 1999.

According to BBBC, his final public appearance was in 2017, four years after his stroke. By this time, his younger brother Said Bouteflika was widely viewed as the country's real ruler behind the scenes.

When it was announced that the ailing president would run for a fifth term in 2019, protests spread across the country.