Algeria's ailing President Abdelaziz Bouteflika will resign before his mandate expires on April 28, his office said Monday, according to AFP.
The 82-year-old, who has rarely been seen in public since a 2013 stroke, has been clinging to power as pressure mounted for weeks over attempts to prolong his 20-year rule.
Bouteflika will resign "before April 28, 2019", after "important decisions" are taken, the presidency said in a statement, without specifying when these moves would occur.
He would take "steps to ensure state institutions continue to function during the transition period", said the statement carried by the official APS news agency.
On Sunday, it was reported that Bouteflika was preparing to announce his resignation in accordance with article 102 of the constitution, which allows a constitutional council to declare Bouteflika unfit for office or he can resign himself.
Algeria has been rocked by huge protests since the president announced in February that he was seeking a fifth term in office.
In mid-March, Bouteflika announced he would be dropping his bid for a fifth term in office and scrapped the elections altogether following the protests.
He at the time vowed "to hand over the duties and prerogatives of the president of the republic to the successor freely chosen by the Algerian people," but gave no date for new elections.
Algeria was one of the countries to be hit by protests during the so-called “Arab Spring” in 2011, and hundreds were arrested by riot police as they called for the Bouteflika’s resignation.
Bouteflika subsequently lifted a state of emergency that was imposed in 1992, as Islamist militants waged war over the government's decision to ignore elections that gave a majority to a Muslim party.
Although credited with helping foster peace after Algeria's decade-long civil war, Bouteflika has faced criticism for alleged authoritarianism. He became president in 1999, and has clung on to power despite his ill health.
He was elected for a fourth term in April 2014 with 81.5 percent of the vote, despite not campaigning.