The Algerian presidency said yesterday, Friday, that former President Abdelaziz Bouteflika died at the age of 84, more than two years after he stepped down under the pressure of unprecedented popular protests.
Bouteflika ruled Algeria for 20 years, before resigning in April 2019 after street demonstrations rejected his plan to run for a fifth term.
Al-Jazeera correspondent in Algeria, Atef Qadadra, said that the official television was satisfied with the news of Bouteflika's death, while some data received from the family of the late stated that he died yesterday, Friday, at ten o'clock at night, Algeria time.
The stroke that affected the late president in 2013 caused him to lose the ability to walk, and he has been moving in a chair since that time, and he has lost much of his mental abilities in the last two years, and his last appearance was at the headquarters of the Constitutional Council in 2019, when he was forced to resign before the end of his term by about A month and a half under pressure from the popular movement rejecting his candidacy for a fifth presidential term.
Bouteflika has disappeared since submitting the resignation, and was visited by his brother Nasser and his sister who take care of his needs at his home.
Al-Jazeera correspondent added that the funeral of the late president is expected to be announced on Saturday or tomorrow, Sunday, adding that the question is whether an official funeral for Bouteflika will take place, or will it be a family funeral only, and whether he will be buried in the place designated for former presidents in the Al-Alia cemetery, or in a cemetery in which his mother, who departed before 10 years.
Bouteflika was a veteran of Algeria's war for independence, and he held leadership positions in the Algerian revolution before independence, and in the country after it, and led Algerian diplomacy during the Cold War.