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dpa
Algiers
Algeria’s former president Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who was forced to step down following months of street protests against his 20-year rule, was laid to rest in an official but scaled-back funeral on Sunday.
Bouteflika, the North African country’s longest-serving ruler, died on Friday aged 84.
He was interred Sunday at El-Alia cemetery in the Martyrs’ Square, east of the capital Algiers, where the country’s other leaders and independence fighters are buried.
Bouteflika was one of the last of a generation of Algerian leaders from the 1954-62 war of independence from France.
Incumbent President Abdelmadjid Tebboune and other senior state officials attended the funeral, Algeria’s state news agency APS reported.
Bouteflika’s body was draped in the Algerian flag on a military vehicle, TV footage showed.
On Saturday, Tebboune declared three days of mourning for Bouteflika and ordered that the national flag be lowered to half-mast.
However, unlike his predecessors, no lying-in-state ceremony was held for him. In addition, eight days of mourning were announced after the death of Bouteflika’s predecessors.
Bouteflika had governed Algeria for four consecutive terms since 1999, but when he announced he would run for a fifth term in spring 2019, anger erupted in Algeria.
The move sparked mass protests, with millions of demonstrators demanding his resignation.
The military eventually withdrew its support and Bouteflika was forced to resign a few days before the end of his fourth term.
Bouteflika has rarely been seen in public since he suffered a stroke in 2013. German Chancellor Angela Merkel had to cancel a planned visit in 2017 at the last minute because Bouteflika’s health did not allow it.
Algiers
Algeria’s former president Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who was forced to step down following months of street protests against his 20-year rule, was laid to rest in an official but scaled-back funeral on Sunday.
Bouteflika, the North African country’s longest-serving ruler, died on Friday aged 84.
He was interred Sunday at El-Alia cemetery in the Martyrs’ Square, east of the capital Algiers, where the country’s other leaders and independence fighters are buried.
Bouteflika was one of the last of a generation of Algerian leaders from the 1954-62 war of independence from France.
Incumbent President Abdelmadjid Tebboune and other senior state officials attended the funeral, Algeria’s state news agency APS reported.
Bouteflika’s body was draped in the Algerian flag on a military vehicle, TV footage showed.
On Saturday, Tebboune declared three days of mourning for Bouteflika and ordered that the national flag be lowered to half-mast.
However, unlike his predecessors, no lying-in-state ceremony was held for him. In addition, eight days of mourning were announced after the death of Bouteflika’s predecessors.
Bouteflika had governed Algeria for four consecutive terms since 1999, but when he announced he would run for a fifth term in spring 2019, anger erupted in Algeria.
The move sparked mass protests, with millions of demonstrators demanding his resignation.
The military eventually withdrew its support and Bouteflika was forced to resign a few days before the end of his fourth term.
Bouteflika has rarely been seen in public since he suffered a stroke in 2013. German Chancellor Angela Merkel had to cancel a planned visit in 2017 at the last minute because Bouteflika’s health did not allow it.
