confirmed that Ghana's President John Evans Atta Mills, 68, is dead.
He passed away at the 37th Military Hospital according to the
government's statement signed by John Henry Martey ofthe Ghanaian
Ministry of Information
"It is with a heavy heart that we announce the sudden and untimely
death of the president of the republic of Ghana," the statement said,
It said the president, 68, died a few hours after taking ill. No
further details were given.
According to the constitution, Vice President John Dramani Mahama is
to take over as interim leader. Presidential elections are set for
December in a countryseen as a rare example of stable democracy in
West Africa.
The late president had recently traveled to the United States for what
had been described as a routine medical checkup.
Mills took over as Ghana's president in January 2009. He narrowly won
the vote in 2008 by a less than one percent margin against a candidate
from the party of the incumbent John Kufuor, widely respected for
having bowed out following his two terms in office.
In July last year, Mills was nominated to be the ruling National
Democratic Congress party's presidential candidate for December 2012
elections. The primary represented the first time in the country's
history that a sitting president competed for his own party's
nomination.
Mills beat his only rival in the party primary, Nana Konadu Agyemang
Rawlings, the wife of ex-military leader Jerry Rawlings.
Ghana recently joined the ranks of the world's large-scale oil producers.
More details soon.
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