Editor’s Note: Every Friday, WPR Senior Editor Robbie Corey-Boulet curates the top news and analysis from and about the African continent.
Algeria’s ailing, 81-year-old president, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, announced his candidacy for a fifth term last month in the quietest manner possible, issuing a statement to the state news agency. Given his health problems, which have kept him largely out of the public eye in recent years, analysts speculated that Bouteflika was incapable of launching his re-election bid any other way.
The response by Algerians, however, has been anything but quiet. In recent days, they’ve taken to the streets in the biggest protests in Algeria since the Arab uprisings of 2011, and the government is bracing for more large-scale mobilizations. Radio France Internationale reported on Friday that police were deployed at major government buildings in the capital, Algiers, and were also patrolling the city’s main roads.