Algiers – Key dates in the life of Algeria’s former president Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who died on Friday at the age of 84.
March 2, 1937: Born in the Moroccan city of Oujda to a family originally from the western Algerian town of Tlemcen.
1956: Bouteflika joins the National Liberation Army, the military wing of the National Liberation Front fighting for independence from France.
1962-63: He becomes youth, sports and tourism minister in the first government after independence under president Ahmed Ben Bella.
1963-79: Bouteflika is foreign minister under Ben Bella and the country’s second president Houari Boumediene.
1981-87: Sidelined from politics, he lives in exile in Dubai and Geneva.
1999: In April, Bouteflika is elected president after all of his six opponents withdraw, alleging foul play.
In September, Algerians overwhelmingly approve a referendum on his civil reconciliation programme, offering partial amnesty to armed Islamic extremists from the 1992 to 1999 civil war.
2004: Re-elected for a second term.
2005: Admitted to a French hospital to be operated on for a “haemorrhagic ulcer in the stomach”.
2009: Bouteflika wins a third term with 90 percent of the votes after changing the constitution to allow himself another five years in office.
2014: He wins the presidential elections a fourth time, appearing only once during the campaign in a wheelchair after suffering a stroke the previous year.
February 2019: Bouteflika announces a bid for a fifth term in office, sparking mass demonstrations which turn into the Hirak anti-regime protest movement.
April 2019: After losing the backing of powerful army chief Ahmed Gaid Salah, Bouteflika quits office.
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Source: AFP
Picture: Getty Images
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