Abdelaziz Bouteflika, GColIH (pronunciation (help·info); Arabic: عبد العزيز بوتفليقة ‘Abd al-‘Azīz Būtaflīqa ; born 2 March 1937) is an Algerian politician who has been the fifth President of Algeria since 1999. He was Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1963 to 1979. As President, he presided over the end of the bloody Algerian Civil War in 2002, and he ended emergency rule in February 2011 amidst regional unrest. He is former president of the United Nations General Assembly in 1974.
In November 2012, he surpassed Houari Boumédiène as the longest-serving head of state of Algeria.
Abdelaziz Bouteflika was born on 2 March 1937 in Oujda, French Morocco. He was the first child of his mother and the second child of his father (Fatima, his half-sister, preceded him). His father (Ahmed Bouteflika) and mother (Mansouria Ghezlaoui) originated from Tlemcen, Algeria. Bouteflika has three half-sisters (Fatima, Yamina, and Aïcha), as well as four brothers (Abdelghani, Mustapha, Abderahim and Saïd) and one sister (Latifa). Saïd serves as Abdelaziz Bouteflika's personal physician, and is said by some to be an important figure in Bouteflika's inner circle of advisers. A son of a zaouia sheikh, Abdelaziz Bouteflika memorized the Qur'an at young age. He continued his education in Oujda until high school. Later, he joined the Algerian Liberation Army (ALN), soon getting a promotion. In 1960, he was assigned with leading the Malian Front in the Algerian south, when he became known with his revolutionary name of Abdelkader al-Mali, which has survived until today.