Protesters across Algeria demand president step down

ALGIERS, Algeria — With Algerian flags on their backs, people of all ages marched Friday through Algeria’s capital and other cities amid heavy security for what could be decisive protests against longtime leader Abdelaziz Bouteflika.

The crowds packing leafy boulevards throughout central Algiers appeared bigger than a week ago, when hundreds of thousands took to the streets to demand an end to Bouteflika’s 20-year rule.

Chanting “Bouteflika, Get Out” and other slogans, diverse groups converged on three public plazas that have become focal points for an exceptional, month-long public uprising against the country’s shadowy leadership.

Algerians have barely seen Bouteflika in public since he suffered a 2013 stroke, and many are angry at a power structure widely seen as corrupt. Millions struggle to make ends meet despite the country’s gas wealth.

The warm spring sun seemed to encourage the protesters, who were so numerous that it was difficult to move on some streets in Algiers. Algerian media reported protests in several other cities around Africa’s biggest country.

Riot police vans lined side streets of Algiers and surveillance helicopters circled overhead.

A group of young women delighted in taking selfies with smiling police officers. Shops along the march routes turned a brisk profit selling Algerian flags and pizza or honey-filled pastries. The diverse crowd included women with and without headscarves, and fathers carrying children on their shoulders.

The protesters want to send a mass message that they are rejecting Bouteflika’s attempt this week to defuse Algeria’s political crisis.

Bouteflika ceded to protesters’ demands that he abandon plans for a fifth term, and promised reforms addressing concerns of frustrated, struggling youth. But he...