Former Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, ousted from power in 2019 after massive protests against his desire to run for a new term, died on Friday at the age of 84.
“Death of former President Abdelaziz Bouteflika,” said a banner unfolding on national television, citing a press release from the Presidency of the Republic.
The date of his burial has not been announced.
Since his spectacular fall in April 2019 under pressure from the army and the street, the one Algerians colloquially called “Boutef” had remained holed up in solitude in his nursing home in Zeralda, west of Algiers, then that his relatives were being prosecuted on charges of corruption.
His fall had become inevitable after weeks of massive demonstrations against his desire to run for a fifth five-year term, after 20 years in power, despite his illness.
Bouteflika, born March 2, 1937, died at “10:00 p.m. (9:00 p.m. GMT) at his place of residence”, according to the private channel El Hayet TV.
– Exceptional longevity –
Omnipresent in Algerian political life for decades, but become almost invisible since a stroke in 2013, Bouteflika had given no sign of life since the popular protest movement of the “Hirak” and the army had forced him to resign.
That day he had last appeared on television to announce that he was throwing in the towel. The Hirak however continued despite the ouster of Bouteflika and his clan, then the election in 2019 of his successor Abdelmadjid Tebboune.
The movement calls for the dismantling of the system of governance in place since independence in 1962, but the authorities say that the main demands of the protesters have been met.
Bouteflika’s fourth term took place against a backdrop of plummeting oil prices for an economy very dependent on hydrocarbons.
The coffers were empty and it was no longer possible to buy social peace, as in 2011 when the Arab Spring had swept the region.
Official televisions were content to announce the death of the former head of state, without however interrupting their programs to devote special programs to him.
Apart from the official announcement, Bouteflika’s death did not give rise to any immediate comment from the authorities, but Internet users have commented extensively on the disappearance of the one who remained in power from 1999 to 2019, a record for longevity. in Algeria.
– “Power at any cost” –
“Abdelaziz Bouteflika died leaving behind a destroyed country. Finally, he will be in good hands who will judge him as he deserves”, writes on his Facebook page Sabrina Debabcha.
“The last death of a president. Bouteflika survived all rumors. This time the rumor is dead. And him with,” said another on the same network, journalist Karim Alem.
Since his stroke, which made him aphasic and nailed him in a wheelchair, Bouteflika has been constantly rumored about his health and death. But, each time, he reappeared in public to deny them.
His candidacy for a fifth successive term had been perceived as too much humiliation by millions of Algerians, who took to the streets in the country’s major cities from February 22, 2019.
Elected for the first time in 1999, constantly re-elected in the first round with more than 80% of the votes in 2004, 2009 and 2014, this fifth term seemed acquired in the eyes of the regime.
But six weeks of massive Hirak mobilization – unprecedented in Algeria – had pushed the boss of the army at the time, General Ahmed Gaid Salah, one of his loyalists, to obtain his resignation.
“All his life, Abdelaziz Bouteflika has been driven by two obsessions: to gain power and keep it at all costs. He wanted to serve a fifth term despite the fact that he was sick and helpless,” Farid told AFP. Alilat, author of “Bouteflika, The Secret History”, an intimate investigation into the path of the former “raïs”.
Bouteflika is considered to be the architect of national reconciliation which has made it possible to restore peace in Algeria, plunged into civil war since 1992 against an Islamist guerrilla which has claimed some 200,000 lives in ten years according to the official record.
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