US backs right of Algerians to protest
Algerian protestors face anti-riot police during a demonstration in the northern coastal city of Oran, on March 5, 2019 against the ailing president Abdelaziz Bouteflika's bid for a fifth term. PHOTO | AFP
What you need to know:
- Thousands of students marched in the capital and other cities on Tuesday in the latest display of public anger.
- Bouteflika promised if he wins the April election, he will organise a "national conference" to set a date for polls which he would not contest.
Washington
The United States on Tuesday expressed support for the right of Algerians to protest, after thousands took to the streets to oppose President Abdelaziz Bouteflika's bid for a fifth term.
The "US supports the Algerian people and their right to peacefully assemble," deputy State Department spokesman Robert Palladino told journalists.
"We're monitoring these protests that are happening in Algeria and we're going to continue to do that," Palladino said.
Protests have seen tens of thousands of people turn out in the North African country to demand that the 82-year-old president resign.
Thousands of students marched in the capital and other cities on Tuesday in the latest display of public anger.
Bouteflika, who suffered a stroke in 2013 and is rarely seen in public, promised on Sunday that if he wins the April election, he will organise a "national conference" to set a date for further polls which he would not contest.
His pledge, made in a letter read out on state television, has been dismissed as an insult by Algerians weary of his two-decade-old rule.
