BBC Online :
The former president of Algeria, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, has died after a long illness at the age of 84.
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.
Then in 1999, as Algeria emerged from a brutal civil war that killed almost 200,000 people, he became president at the urging of the military.
Bouteflika had rarely been seen in public since a stroke in 2013, which affected his speech and mobility.
His political career began early: After Algeria’s independence from France in 1962, he became the world’s youngest minister of foreign affairs in his mid-twenties, a record that still stands.
He would hold the job for 16 years, and was an active member of the UN. As president of the general assembly in 1974, he invited Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to address the UN governing body – an unprecedented and ground-breaking move.
He also insisted China should have a UN seat, and stood against apartheid in South Africa. He is credited with giving a young Nelson Mandela his first military training.
Bouteflika passed part of the 1980s in exile, avoiding corruption charges that were ultimately dropped.
He returned home in the 1990s and took office in 1999 – Algeria’s first civilian leader in more than three decades.
The man known as “Boutef” managed to broker peace between the army and armed Islamist militants who were fighting the country’s civil war.
