UN in Somalia mourns death of ex-Ghana president

The UN Mission in Somalia (UNSOM) has mourned the death of former Ghanaian President Jerry Rawlings who passed on Thursday.

The Mission said in a statement it extended its condolences to the West African leader. Rawlings who first came to power in 1979 through a coup was later elected two times as president of Ghana.

Rawlings, the son of a Scottish farmer and Ghanain mother served as African Union High Respresentative for Somalia between 2010 and 2012.

Sources said the former leader died in a hospital in Accra after a brief illness.

African Union Commission chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat said “Africa has lost a stalwart of Pan-Africanism and a charismatic continental statesman”.