Beji Caid Essebsi was a major player in the country’s transition to democracy since 2011
Tunisia’s 92-year-old president, Beji Caid Essebsi, has died, the presidency said in a statement on Thursday.
Essebsi was taken to a military hospital on Wednesday.
Essebsi, a major player in the country’s transition to democracy since 2011, had been hospitalised late last month and spent a week in hospital after suffering a “severe health crisis”.
But the president only appeared twice since leaving the hospital on 1 July.
Essebsi had been a prominent figure in Tunisia since the overthrow of veteran autocrat Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali in 2011, which was followed by uprisings against authoritarian leaders across the Middle East, including in nearby Libya and Egypt.
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