Zambia

President Levy Mwanawasa dies after stroke surgery

Article published on the 2008-08-19 Latest update 2008-10-31 11:37 TU

Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa.
(Photo: AFP)

Zambian president Levy Mwanawasa died in a Paris hospital this morning. He was 59. Mwanawasa was flown to Paris in June after suffering a stroke in Egypt two months ago.

Levy Mawanawasa died after undergoing emergency surgery on Monday after a complication resulting from his second stroke in two years.

It was a final twist to a long battle with prostate cancer, hypertension, diabetes and head injuries from a road accident in 1993 when he was deputy president.

Mwanawasa became Zambia's third president in 2002, after an election, widely believed to have been rigged for him by his predecessor Frederick Chiluba.

A former solicitor-general under independence leader Kenneth Kaunda, he stunned many by defecting from the ruling party to cofound his own movement in 1991.

He also turned against his mentor Chiluba instigating his arrest on charges of corruption. The two-term president was a staunch critic of Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe and often slammed Southern African leaders for their alleged scandalous silence over events in the neighbouring country.

Mwanawasa's outspoken foreign policy made him a darling of the west who stumped up 160 million dollars in 2008 to help eradicate poverty in Zambia. However, in a recent comment, he admitted having only scratched the surface of misery in his country, as a majority of Zambians continued living below the poverty line.