Algeria strikes against Bouteflika as he returns from Geneva

Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s plane landed at Boufarik military base south of Algiers late afternoon, several Algerian media outlets said.

The Ennahar TV channel broadcast pictures of a convoy of black cars, preceded by motorbikes with flashing lights, speeding towards Algiers on a main road that was closed to other traffic.

The head of state's return ahead of April 18 elections came as protest strikes shut down the capital's public transport system and many schools across the country.

The 82-year-old president, who suffered a stroke in 2013, left Algeria on February 24 for what the presidency on Sunday once again described as "routine medical checks".

Demonstrations against Bouteflika's bid for a fifth term have attracted tens of thousands of people in Algiers and across the country for each of the last three Fridays, with smaller demonstrations taking place on other days.

Algeria's army chief and deputy defence minister, Ahmed Gaid Salah, was silent on the upcoming elections on Sunday but said the military and the people share "the same values and principles".

Together they hold "a unique vision of the future of Algeria," said Salah, considered to be within Bouteflika's inner circle, in an address to students from military schools.

Following the breakout of protests, the army chief earlier this month pledged to guarantee Algeria's security and criticised those he said want to return to the "painful years" of Algeria's 1992-2002 civil war.

No trains, metros, trams or buses left or circulated within Algiers, employees of the companies running those networks told AFP on Sunday morning.

Around 1,000 high school students gathered peacefully in central Algiers, while others marched in cities elsewhere.

Bouteflika has been in power since 1999 and his rare public appearances since his stroke have been in a wheelchair.

As the protest strike continued, students and teachers occupied a number of universities, defying the education ministry's ruling a day earlier to bring holidays forward.

Students have been at the heart of protests and a decision to start spring break on Sunday - instead of March 21 - will affect many whose family homes are far from campuses which are set to close over the holidays.

"Algeria free and democratic!" cried students at the University of Science and Technology Houari Boumediene in Algiers, where around 2,000 gathered to rally against the holiday decision and to keep up their protest against Bouteflika.

The opposition to the president shows that "the Bouteflika system is broken and that it will break up", said former prime minister Ali Benflis, in an interview with France's Le Journal du Dimanche newspaper.

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