Abdelaziz Bouteflika
Abdelaziz Bouteflika عبد العزيز بوتفليقة 5th President of Algeria Incumbent Assumed office 27 April 1999 Prime Minister Smail Hamdani Ahmed Benbitour Ali Benflis Ahmed Ouyahia Abdelaziz Belkhadem Ahmed Ouyahia Abdelmalek Sellal Youcef Yousfi (Acting) Abdelmalek Sellal Preceded by Liamine Zéroual Personal details Born (1937-03-02) 2 March 1937 (age 77) Oujda, French Morocco Political party National Liberation Front Religion Sunni Islam Military service Allegiance Algeria Service/branch Armée de Libération Nationale (ALN Years of service ALN 1954-1962 Battles/wars Algerian War Abdelaziz Bouteflika ( pronunciation (help·info); Arabic: عبد العزيز بوتفليقة [ʕaːbd lʕziz butfliqa]; born 2 March 1937) is an Algerian politician who has been the fifth President of Algeria since 1999. He was Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1963 to 1979. As President, he presided over the end of the bloody Algerian Civil War in 2002, and he ended emergency rule in February 2011 amidst regional unrest. He has also served as president of the United Nations General Assembly. Protests in Algeria took place between 2010 and 2012; protesters demanded a regime change, as well as solutions to problems with unemployment, corruption, restrictions of freedom of speech, and poor living conditions. In November 2012, he surpassed Houari Boumediene as the longest-serving president of Algeria.