FILE: File footage of Zambian President Michael Sata after a government source tells Reuters the 77 year old has died

Record ID: 708218

  • Title: FILE: File footage of Zambian President Michael Sata after a government source tells Reuters the 77 year old has died
  • Date: 29th October 2014
  • Summary: VARIOUS OF SATA SINGING ZAMBIAN NATIONAL ANTHEM
  • Embargoed: 13th November 2014 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Zambia, Belgium
  • City:
  • Country: Belgium Zambia
  • Topics: Obituaries,Politics,People
  • Reuters ID: LVA8WQWRQD12WC4GRWCETSNNXX6I
  • Story Text: Zambian President Michael Sata has died in London, where he had been receiving treatment for an undisclosed illness, a government source told Reuters on Wednesday (October 29).
    "It is true. We lost the President. The acting president will make a statement soon," the source said.
    Earlier, there were reports on the private Muzi television station and the Zambia Reports and Zambian Watchdog websites which said the southern African nation's cabinet was about to meet.
    The reports said Sata had died on Tuesday evening (October 28), at London's King Edward VII hospital.
    The hospital declined to 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 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 U.N. 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."
    Sata has not been seen in public since he returned to Zambia from New York in late September.
  • Copyright Holder: FILE REUTERS (CAN SELL)
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