Zambian President Michael Sata has died in London, where he had been receiving treatment for an undisclosed illness, according to Zambian media reports. The reports said mr Sata had died on Tuesday evening at London’s King Edward VII hospital.
Government officials gave no immediate comment.
Sata, 77, left Zambia for medical treatment abroad on Oct. 19 accompanied by his wife and family members, according to a brief government statement that gave no further details.
There has been no official update on his condition and acting president Edgar Lungu had to lead celebrations last week to mark the landlocked nation’s 50th anniversary of independence from Britain.
Concern over Mr Sata’s health has been mounting in Africa’s second-largest copper producer since June, when he disappeared from the public eye without explanation and was then reported to be getting medical treatment in Israel.
He missed a scheduled speech at the UN General Assembly in September amid reports that he had fallen ill in his New York hotel. A few days before that, he had attended the opening of parliament in Lusaka, joking: “I am not dead.”
Mr Sata has not been seen in public since he returned to Zambia from New York in late September.
The Telegraph
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