Algerian protests force president to resign after 20 years in power

Algerian protests.
(Image credit: RYAD KRAMDI/AFP/Getty Images)

Change is on the horizon in Algeria. The nation celebrated in the streets on Tuesday after President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who was in power for 20 years, abruptly resigned following weeks of mass protests in the capital city of Algiers.

The 82-year-old Bouteflika had not been seen often in public following a stroke in 2013, but had retained the office of the presidency. But he finally relinquished the position after the army's chief of staff Lieutenant General Ahmed Gaed Salah, who holds great sway in Algeria, demanded Bouteflika officially step down. The resignation is not itself surprising — Bouteflika agreed to leave office before the end of his term on April 28 — but Salah reportedly decided that those terms were issued by "unconstitutional and unauthorized parties," per Reuters.

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Tim O'Donnell

Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.