According to the north African country’s state-run media, Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika resigned Tuesday hours after the nation’s army chief demanded his removal and following weeks of mass protests. The ailing 82-year-old President said in a letter to the Constitutional Council, published by the Algeria Press Service, that his resignation would go into immediate effect. In a televised speech aired Tuesday, Algeria’s army chief Lt. Gen. Ahmed Gaid Salah demanded that the president be removed from office or he would pursue launching a constitutional procedure to declare Bouteflika — a wheelchair-bound autocrat who had been rarely seen in public since suffering a stroke in 2013 — unfit to rule. Abdelkader Bensalah, chairman of the upper house of parliament and Bouteflika’s ally, will take over the country’s helm until elections are held, Al Jazeera reportedThe nation had been taking to the streets in protest of the octogenarian’s rule since late February when he announced that he would be running for a fifth term.

Source: The North Africa Journal April 03, 2019 06:33 UTC