He remained in power from 1999 to 2019, a record for longevity in Algeria. 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, September 17, aged 84. “Death of former president Abdelaziz Bouteflika”, announced a banner on national television, citing a statement from the Presidency of the Republic. The date of his burial has not been announced.
Franceinfo looks back on six little-known elements from the past of someone who has been ubiquitous in Algerian political life for decades.
1He was not born in Algeria, but in Morocco
This is an element that does not appear in any official biography, but Abdelzaziz Bouteflika was born in Morocco on March 2, 1937, in the city of Oujda, located five kilometers from the Algerian border. A large Algerian community settled in western Morocco from 1850 onwards, after the defeat of Emir Abdelkader against the French, he recalls young africa.
At the time of Algeria’s war for independence, the National Liberation Army (ALN) established its base in Oujda. The Bouteflika family home will even play an important role. Algerian officials installed their listening and transmitting equipment there, which was used by the FNL (National Liberation Front) and the ALN, it specifies young africa. The main actors of independence, including Houari Boumédiène (author of the first Algerian coup d’état) and Abdelaziz Bouteflika, will be dubbed “the clan of Oujda”, reports Slate Africa.
twoHe was the youngest minister in the country’s history
In 1958, Abdelaziz Bouteflika approached Colonel Houari Boumédiène. He becomes your private secretary and accompanies you on your way. At just 25 years old, the future president is the youngest minister in the country. In 1962, he started to occupy the Youth, Sports and Tourism portfolio. He also sits in the Constituent Assembly as a deputy for Tlemcen. The following year, the one who is nicknamed the “little man” becomes Boumedienne’s foreign minister. He held this position for sixteen years, a record.
3He offered Yasser Arafat his first platform
Like Boumediene, Abdelaziz Bouteflika represents, on the diplomatic level, the position of independence and of the non-aligned. In 1974, he was elected president of the United Nations General Assembly. On this occasion, he offered Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat his first international platform. In addition, he manages to have the delegation representing the South African apartheid regime excluded from UN bodies, he reports young africa.
4He lived in exile for several years
After the death of Houari Boumédiène in 1978, Abdelaziz Bouteflika sees power slipping away from him in favor of Colonel Chadli Bendjedid. The new authorities accuse him of “irregular management of past budget credits”. He is excluded from the FNL’s central committee. He then began a long crossing of the political desert and went into exile between Paris, Geneva and Abu Dhabi, where he advises the almighty Sheikh Zayed, reports The world. As the daily explains, thanks to a political opening in Algeria, Bouteflika ended up returning to the FLN’s central committee in March 1989.
5He “has achieved the biggest heist in the country’s history”
As soon as he was elected in April 1999, Abdelaziz Bouteflika pledged to restore peace in a country torn apart by civil war. In summer, its first major law was enacted for “civil harmony”. This text grants amnesty to armed Islamists who have not committed blood crimes and rapes, and who agree to submit to the authority of the state. After his re-election in 2004, a new referendum allowed the adoption of a “Charter for peace and reconciliation”, offering the “excuse” for the Islamists still in the bush in exchange for their surrender.
“Giving them political coverage [réconciliation, amnistie…] and making it a military project, that of peace, which had in fact been in force since 1995, the date from which the terrorists began to surrender, Bouteflika managed the biggest assault in the country’s history ”, analysis, in turn, of an old picture of the fight against terrorism, interviewed by Le Figaro.
6he was married briefly
Like his hometown, Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s married life is a taboo subject. Thus, this aspect of his private life was addressed only once in his twenty-year reign, during an interview in 2000 with the Lebanese channel LBC, he reports young africa. The Algerian president then brusquely replied that he was not married, a very rare occurrence for an African leader, the newspaper notes.
However, Abdelaziz Bouteflika was in fact married during the year 1990, also guarantees in the parisian, Mohamed Benchicou, author of Bouteflika, an Algerian farce. “He married Amal Triki, daughter of diplomat Yahia Triki, then first counselor at the Algerian embassy in Cairo. The marriage certificate was drawn up by an agent of the city hall of Sidi-M’hamed (a district of Algiers) specially sent to the apartment, he confides. She has never appeared alongside her husband, nor is she officially introduced in his entourage. “
young africa specifies that, according to his information, the couple have divorced and that this woman now divides her life between Egypt and France.