The world's longest standing intelligence chief was fired last week, but chances are you’ve probably never even heard of him.
For the last 25 years, Gen. Mohamed Mediene has led Algeria’s shadowy intelligence and security wing Département du Renseignement et de la Sécurité (DRS).
But Mediene’s abrupt replacement by his former deputy General Bachir this week ended a reign in the north African country that’s left plenty more questions than answers.
Here are four things to know:
1. Also known as Gen. Toufik, Mediene’s seemingly omnipresent intelligence wing earned him the nickname, “God of Algeria.” But he was almost never seen — only two blurry photos of him are known to exist, and he reportedly appeared in public for the first time Sunday.
Des images du général #Toufik diffusées pour la première fois. Vidéo >> http://t.co/LZjFTboxCg via @TSAlgerie pic.twitter.com/zhkgbFDoza
— TSA Algérie (@TSAlgerie) سبتمبر 13, 2015
Translation: Images of General #Toufik broadcast for the first time. Video >> http://t.co/LZjFTboxCg via @TSAlgerie
2. Sharing power with Algeria’s presidents wasn’t always easy. When President Liamine Zeroual tried to replace him with an advisor in 1996, Toufik informed him that the advisor had been killed in an ‘unfortunate’ car accident. The DRS frequently interfered with Zeroual’s successor, President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, too. The intelligence wing hesitated to support his third term in office, and dropped the backing altogether during his campaign for a fourth term.
3. Toufik's early years as chief were characterized by civil war between the Algerian government and Islamic forces in the country. He led a faction of the military that sought to "eradicate" the Islamists, rather than negotiate with them.
4. Recently, he was harshly criticized for his suspected role in several fatal incidents. One government official pointed to him in the brutal decapitation of seven abducted French-Cistercian monks in 1996, while a former DRS agent accused him of initiating the 1997 Beni Messous massacre that killed some 200 civilians.
By Allison Beeman
