Algeria Announces 3-Day Mourning over Ex-President Bouteflika’s Death

Algeria announced Saturday a three-day mourning period nationwide over the death of Former President Abdelaziz Bouteflika.

"Three-day mourning over the death of former President Abdelaziz Bouteflika," the Algerian presidency said on Facebook.

Bouteflika, who ruled the country for two decades, died at the age of 84, more than two years after he stepped down under the pressure of mass protests.

He is a veteran of Algeria’s war for independence. He resigned in April 2019 after street demonstrations rejected his plan to run for a fifth term.

After Algeria gained independence from France in 1962, former President Bouteflika became the country's first foreign minister and an influential figure in the Non-Aligned Movement.

In the early 1980s, he went into exile after the death of former President Houari Boumediene. He returned home in the 1990s when Algeria was fighting a war with armed Islamists that killed at least 200,000 people.