Algeria’s influential army chief dies, national mourning declared

ALGIERS: Algeria’s military chief Gaid Salah, a central figure in the country’s turbulent politics this year, died unexpectedly on Monday, the presidency said.

Salah suffered a heart attack at home in the early morning and was then taken to a military hospital, a presidential statement was quoted by the state news agency APS as saying.

Newly elected President Abdelmadjid Tebboune declared three days of national mourning and seven days for the army over the sudden death of Salah, who was 80 years old.

The presidency mourned Salah’s death as a “painful loss at this time in Algeria.”

Tebboune appointed General Said Chengriha as the acting chief of staff.

Salah was seen as instrumental in the resignation of president Abdelaziz Bouteflika in April, adding to the pressure on the long-time ruler after mass protests in the country.

After the protests broke out in February, Salah called for the application of a constitutional article which allows for the removal of the president on health grounds.

In the months that followed Bouteflika’s departure, Salah defied protesters’ demands that he also resign. He supported the elections held earlier this month, which brought Tebboune to office. Salah had described the elections as the only way out of the crisis in the country.

Salah received a military training in the Soviet Union and was appointed head of Algeria’s land forces in 1994.

He was appointed as chief of staff in 2004, and held a civilian post alongside that role as deputy minister of defence as of 2013; the defence minister in Algeria is generally the country’s president.

Following Bouteflika’s resignation, Salah supported an anti-corruption crackdown, with key people in Bouteflika’s inner circle having been brought to justice. “The army is committed to justice,” he had said.

The North African country has been gripped by mass protests against Tebboune. The protesters consider Tebboune to be part of Bouteflika’s authoritarian elite, as he served briefly as prime minister in 2017.