PM: Algeria’s Ailing President Doing «Very Well»

Local Editor

Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who had rarely appeared in public since a crippling stroke in 2013, is doing "very well", the country's prime minister said Thursday.

Speculation has mounted about the veteran president's health since he suffered a bout of bronchitis in February, forcing German Chancellor Angela Merkel to cancel a scheduled visit to Algiers at the last minute.

But asked about it during a visit to Tunis, Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal, said: "He sends you his greetings and is doing very well."

Bouteflika, who turned 80 on March 2, has been in power since 1999.

He was elected to a fourth term in 2014 but attended his inauguration in a wheelchair and was barely able to deliver more than a few paragraphs of his speech and mumble through the oath of office.

Since then, he had rarely appeared in public, receiving foreign heads of state or government in privacy at his official residence in Zeralda, west of the capital.

During his visit to Tunis, Sellal held talks with President Beji Caid Essebsi and Prime Minister Youssef Chahed and signed several agreements, including on security cooperation.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team