Veteran of Algeria’s war for independence, Bouteflika ruled the North African country for two decades 

Algiers, September 17 (RHC)-- Former Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has died at 84, the country’s presidency said on Friday.  Bouteflika, a veteran of Algeria’s war for independence, had ruled the North African country for two decades, until 2019.  The Algerian leader had rarely been seen in public since a stroke in 2013.

Bouteflika is considered as a national hero, fighting in the battlefield during Algeria’s war for independence from France.  After Algeria’s independence from Paris in 1962, former president Bouteflika became Algeria’s first foreign minister and an influential figure in the Non-Aligned Movement.

As a president of the UN General Assembly, Bouteflika invited former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to address the body in 1974, a historic step toward international recognition of the Palestinian cause.  He also demanded that China be given a seat in the in the United Nations, and railed against apartheid rule in South Africa.   And he was a staunch defender of the Cuban Revolution.  

Elected president in 1999, he managed to negotiate a truce with the Islamists and launched a national reconciliation process allowing the country to restore peace.  During his first years in office, he led the country into an economic boom, sparking development nationwide.