Ghana’s President John Atta Mills dies

Ghanaian President John Atta Mills has died. He was 68.
President Atta Mills, who was suffering from throat cancer, died yesterday in Accra. A statement from his office said President Atta Mills died a few hours after being taken ill, but did not give details.

“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.
Mr Atta Mills ruled the West African country since 2009. The BBC’s Sammy Darko, who was at the military hospital in Accra, says Mr Atta Mills’ voice had been degenerating in the last few months.
A presidential aide told Reuters yesterday that the leader had complained of suffering from pains on Monday evening and died yesterday afternoon.

According to the Ghanaian Constitution, Vice-President John Dramani Mahama is to take over as interim leader. Presidential elections are set for December in a country seen as a rare example of stable democracy in West Africa.

The late president had recently travelled to the United States for what had been described as a routine medical check-up.

President Atta Mills took over as Ghana’s president in January 2009.
He narrowly won the vote in 2008 by a less than 1 percent margin against a candidate from the party of incumbent John Kufuor, widely respected for having bowed out following his two terms in office. In July last year, President Atta Mills was nominated to be the ruling National Democratic Congress party’s presidential candidate for December 2012 elections.

The primary nomination represented the first time in the country’s history that a sitting president competed for his own party’s nomination.
President Atta 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.

A Western-educated university professor specialising in taxation, President Atta Mills served as the country’s vice-president from 1996 to 2000.
He was the leftist National Democratic Congress nominee for the presidency on three occasions: in 2000, 2004 and 2008. — BBC-Reuters-AFP.