Zambia’s former president Edgar Lungu, who held power for almost seven years until 2021, died Thursday in a hospital in South Africa at the age of 68, his party and family announced.
Lungu had been receiving specialised medical treatment in a clinic in Pretoria, the Patriotic Front (PF), his political party, said in a statement.
“My father had been under medical supervision in recent weeks,” his daughter and member of the country’s national assembly Tasila Lungu-Mwansa said in a video shared on social media.
“His condition was managed with dignity and privacy with support from all well-wishers,” she said, without providing details of the cause of his death.
Lungu, a trained military officer and lawyer, became the country’s sixth president in 2015 after the death in office of his predecessor Michael Sata.
While campaigning to be elected leader of the large but sparsely populated, resource-rich country, Lungu described himself as an “ordinary Zambian of humble beginnings”.
He narrowly won the 2016 election against Hakainde Hichilema of the United Party for National Development (UPND) after a violent campaign that saw clashes between the two parties.
He pledged to unite the country and rebuild the economy.
