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BFF-09
HEALTH-VIRUS-ALGERIA
Algerian president returns from Germany after post-Covid surgery
ALGIERS, Feb 13, 2021 (BSS/AFP) – Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune
returned home Friday after a one-month stay in Germany for surgery following
post-Covid-19 complications, with pressing issues awaiting him in a country
struggling with health, political and economic crises.
Tebboune’s prolonged stays abroad, totalling three months since late
October, had raised concerns in the North African nation of possible power
vacuum.
Tebboune, 75 and a heavy smoker, had been hospitalised in Germany last year
after contracting Covid-19, and stayed there for two months before returning
to Algeria.
He returned to Germany on January 10, and underwent a “successful”
operation on his right foot 10 days later following post-Covid 19
complications, according to the presidency.
It did not, however, specify the nature of the complications which Tebboune
had suffered.
“The President of the Republic, Supreme Chief of the Armed Forces and
Minister of Defence, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, returned today,” the state
broadcaster informed.
It broadcast images showing the president standing up without a face mask
and greeting top officials with an elbow bump.
Among the key issues that await him include the development of the new
electoral law ahead of anticipated local and legislative elections slated to
be held by the end of the year.
A government reshuffle is also expected.
The economy of Africa’s largest nation is heavily dependent on income from
oil, and has battered by the fluctuating international prices of crude, amid
the coronavirus pandemic and the ensuing economic downturn.
Tebboune won office in December 2019, eight months after the popular Hirak
protest movement swept out his ailing predecessor Abdelaziz Bouteflika.
Tebboune’s initial convalescence in Germany had reminded many Algerians of
octogenarian Bouteflika’s frequent hospitalisations abroad.
“Wake-up!… since mid-October, he has spent only a dozen days in Algeria,”
wrote journalist Abed Charef.
The president’s return comes amid tension ahead of the second anniversary
of the launch of the Hirak protests on February 22.
Hirak protesters continued after Bouteflika’s fall, demanding a full
overhaul of the ruling system in place since Algeria’s 1962 independence from
France.
However, social distancing rules to stem the coronavirus pandemic meant
that protesters had to halt their street rallies early last year.
Algeria’s CNLD prisoners’ rights group says over 90 people, including
activists, social media users and journalists, are currently in custody in
connection with the country’s anti-government protest movement or individual
liberties — mostly for dissenting social media posts.
Algeria has recorded over 110,000 cases including over 2,900 deaths from
Covid-19 since the pandemic began.
On the eve of his return, Tebboune had called German President Frank-Walter
Steinmeier to thank him for the medical care he had received abroad.
BSS/AFP/SSS/0928 hrs