Death of powerful general Salah adds to Algeria’s uncertainty

General Ahmed Gaid Salah was the driving force behind Algerian politics

Ahmed Gaid Salah (EPA)

For decades, Ahmad Gaid Salah worked behind the scenes to maintain his grip on Algeria, serving as commander of land forces during the country’s vicious 1990s civil war, a top military official during nearly two decades of peace and relative prosperity afterward, and as de facto ruler of the country during the past 10 months of political turmoil.

On Monday, barely a week after the lieutenant general installed a new president at the helm of the oil-rich north African military giant, over the objections of a massive nationwide protest movement, Salah died, succumbing to a heart attack.

The powerful, wily army chief was 79 years old.

A replacement, Said Chengriha, was quickly named by the country’s new president, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, state TV reported. But Salah’s passing adds to political uncertainty in Algeria, which is Africa’s largest nation by landmass and a crucial provider of energy to Europe.

Salah, a protege of the country’s former long-time president, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, ultimately turned against his boss last year, pushing to oust him amid a popular protest movement. He then sought to install a successor in the face of a population that has been increasingly wary of the military’s role in politics, and had begun to target him in protests and on social media.

A skilled and seasoned insider, Salah was able to pull the levers of Algeria’s obscure political system like few others, using his powers and influence to jail senior officials over the last year on corruption charges in an attempt to appease protesters and redirect their ire away from the armed forces.

“Salah was obviously in favour of the military’s involvement in politics,” said Jalel Harchaoui, a north Africa specialist at the Clingendael Institute, a Dutch think tank. “He had also shown a keen ability to influence the justice system over the last several months. Vis-à-vis the outside world, he had become a strong figure and had become familiar with key interlocutors such as the Gulf states, for instance. All of that is up in the air now.”

State television declared three days of mourning following the death, as some among the protesters worried his legacy would be whitewashed. Many accuse him of exacerbating tensions between the country’s Arab and Amazigh or Berber communities, needlessly straining relations along one of the key fault-lines of the country of 40 million.

“The sad thing is that he will go down in history books as a national hero,” one prominent protester told The Independent. “He wasn’t.”

Mr Chengriha, Salah’s replacement, is known as an anti-terrorism specialist. But, unlike Salah, the 74-year-old is too young to have participated in the 1950s war for independence from France, the conflict that shaped Algeria and its leadership.

Experts suggest he may not be able to match up to the domestic and international gravitas of Salah, potentially providing an opening for a persistent protest movement that has taken to the streets week after week since February demanding fundamental changes to Algeria’s political system.

“Ahmed Gaid Salah was old-school and rather unique,” said Mr Harchaoui.

“He had travelled a lot over recent years. He never believed in all the efforts of the last 30 years to de-politicise the Algerian army,” he said. “His replacement is not like that. He was born in 1945. It looks like a small difference; but that is a very different generation vis-à-vis the 1954-1962 war of liberation.”