Ahmed Gaid Salah

Lieutenant general Ahmed Gaid Salah
أحمد قايد صالح
Ahmed Gaid Salah in 2006
Chief of Staff of the People's National Army
In office 3 August 2004 – 23 December 2019
President	Abdelaziz Bouteflika Abdelmadjid Tebboune
Preceded by	Mohamed Lamari
Succeeded by	Saïd Chengriha
Deputy Minister of Defense
In office 11 September 2013 – 23 December 2019
Succeeded by	Vacant
Personal details
Born	(1940-01-13)13 January 1940 Batna, French Algeria
Died	23 December 2019(2019-12-23) (aged 79) Algiers, Algeria
Military service
Allegiance	FLN (1957–1962)  Algeria (1962–2019)
Branch/service	Algerian People's National Army
Years of service	1957–2019
Rank	Lieutenant general
Unit	Corps of Artillery
Commands	Chief of Staff of the People's National Army
Battles/wars	Algerian War Sand War War of Attrition Western Sahara War Algerian Civil War

Ahmed Gaid Salah (Arabic: أحمد قايد صالح; 13 January 1940 – 23 December 2019^[1]) was an Algerian military officer and chief of staff of the Algerian People's National Army from 2004 to 2019. In 2004, he was appointed by then-President Abdelaziz Bouteflika to the position of chief of staff of the army. On 15 September 2013, he was appointed Deputy Minister of Defense. Gaid Salah served as Algeria's de facto leader in 2019.^[2]