FILE - In this April 28, 2014 file photo, Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, sitting in a wheelchair, applauds after taking the oath as President in Algiers.
Heads have been rolling in the Algerian army, the North African nation's most respected institution, and in other security services, with generals in top posts fired _ without explanation _ at a rate never before seen.
(AP Photo / Sidali Djarboub, File)
(CNN) -
Former Algerian President Abdelaziz Buteflika passed away on Friday, according to the state-run al-Nahar network.
"Former President of the Republic Abdelaziz Buteflika died on Friday at the age of 84," reported al-Nahar without specifying the cause of death.
Buteflika resigned in April 2019 after weeks of massive protests across the country over his intention to run for a fifth term in the Algerian presidential elections.
Buteflika was first elected in 1999 with the backing of the military, in a race boycotted by all other candidates and widely described as fraudulent.
However, he won praise as president for stepping his country toward stability after the "black decade" of the 1990s, when a bloody civil war left more than 150,000 dead.
He was elected again in 2004, 2009 and 2014 by wide margins, although there was often criticism about the fairness of the elections.
advertising
Buteflika had rarely been seen in public since he suffered a stroke in 2013.
/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/prisa/VFQFJYOVGFFAJOTNW2NNJRUS3I.jpg)
