UPDATE Ghana: Ex-President Rawlings dies at 73

ADDS STATEMENT FROM PRESIDENT, CONDOLENCE MESSAGES

By Felix Tih

ANKARA (AA) - Ghana's former President Jerry John Rawlings died Thursday at the age of 73, authorities said.

''It is with great sadness that I announce to the nation that the 1st President of the 4th Republic, His Excellency Jerry John Rawlings, has joined his ancestors,'' Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo said in a statement.

Rawlings died at 10.10 a.m. [1000 GMT], at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, where the former president was receiving treatment after a short illness, according to Akufo-Addo.

''I convey the deep sympathies of Government and the people of Ghana to his wife, the former First Lady, Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings, the children, and family of the late President, in these difficult times,'' he added.

Akufo-Addo said all national flags should fly at half-mast for the next seven days and declared seven days of national mourning from Nov. 13 until Nov. 20.

Rawling spent nearly a week at a hospital in the capital, Accra.

The former president fell sick after the burial of his mother roughly three weeks ago.

He led a military junta from 1981 to 1992 after coming to power through a coup.

In 1992, Rawlings resigned from the military and established the National Democratic Congress (NDC).

He was democratically elected that year and then in 1996 for a second term.

He greatly contributed in Ghana's political stability and competent economic management.

- Great leader

''It is with great sadness that I learnt of the passing of former president Jerry Rawlings of Ghana. Africa has lost a stalwart of Pan-Africanism and a charismatic continental statesman. My sincere condolences to his family, the people and the government of #Ghana,'' Moussa Faki Mahamat, the chairperson of the African Union Commission tweeted.

''Ghana, Liberia and Africa will miss a great leader,'' George Weah, Liberian president said in a tweet.

He said Liberia remembers Rawlings' ''immense contribution to the attainment and sustainment of peace during our dark days of our own history.''