LYON, France: Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who suffered a stroke last year, was hospitalised in the Alpine city of Grenoble on Thursday, a French police source said.
“He was taken into care at Grenoble mutualist clinic yesterday,” the source said yesterday, although he did not have details on why Bouteflika had been hospitalised. Algerian officials were not immediately available for comment but two government sources denied the report without giving any further details. Algeria’s Echorouk TV, seen as close to the government, cited a presidential source as saying Bouteflika was at home and his health normal.
A veteran of Algeria’s independence war against France, Bouteflika, 77, suffered a stroke in early 2013, forcing him to be rushed to hospital in France. He has since returned to France for several check-ups.
Under Bouteflika, a veteran of the war that ended with independence in 1962, the OPEC producer has become a partner in Washington’s campaign against Al Qaeda-linked militancy in the Maghreb and a supplier of about a fifth of Europe’s gas imports.
But Bouteflika’s frail health has left questions about what happens next, who replaces him if he cannot govern for the entire term and how that would affect political and economic reforms and oil investment in the North African country. French media showed pictures and video footage of the area around the clinic being cordoned off by police Reuters
