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AFP / Getty Images, file
Ghanaian President John Atta Mills is shown last August.
ACCRA -- Ghana's President John Atta Mills has died unexpectedly, a presidential statement said, and an aide said his death occurred on Tuesday after he took ill on Monday night.
The death of the president of the world's No. 2 cocoa grower comes months before Mills was due to stand for re-election at the helm of the West African country that posted double-digit growth in 2011 and has been praised for its strong democracy in a turbulent region.
Vice President John Dramani Mahama was scheduled to be sworn in later Tuesday. According to the country's constitution, Mahama will complete Mills' term that was due to end with elections in December.
"It is with a heavy heart ... that we announce the sudden and untimely death of the president of the Republic of Ghana," a statement sent to Reuters by the president's office said.
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It said that Mills, 68, died a few hours after being taken ill but no further details were given.
A presidential aide, who asked not to be named, said the president had complained of pains on Monday evening and died early on Tuesday afternoon when his condition worsened.
Mills, who oversaw the start of oil production in Ghana, returned from medical checks in the United States several weeks ago.
The BBC reported he had recently suffered from throat cancer.
Mills was married to Ernestina Naadu Mills, an educator, and has a son, Sam Kofi Atta Mills, according to his official online profile.
In March, President Barack Obama received the Ghanaian president in the Oval Office and praised him and his country as "a good-news story" in Africa.
On Tuesday, the U.S. State Department said it "learned with sadness" about Mills' death.
"Our thoughts go to his family and to the people of Ghana, who have lost a beloved leader," said Victoria Nuland, State Department spokeswoman.
Ghana's election commission said December's presidential and parliamentary elections would go ahead as planned.
"The election calendar remains unchanged - it's purely a party matter," election chief Kwadwo Afari-Gyan told Reuters, explaining that it was up to the ruling National Democratic Congress to find a candidate to replace Mills.
Ghana has seen democratic elections decide its leadership no fewer than four times since the last military coup in 1981, a rare feat in a region where power is still just as often determined by the bullet as by the ballot.
Neighbor Ivory Coast has not been so peaceful, suffering months of violence last year after a disputed election. Near-neighbors Liberia and Sierra Leone suffered years of war.
A glance at Ghana's recent history:
July 1960: Kwame Nkrumah becomes president of the Republic of Ghana, months after a republican constitution is ratified by a referendum. Nkrumah is overthrown after a military coup in February 1966.
August 1969: A new constitution is ratified leading to a transfer of power to the civilian government of Kofi Busia. Busia is ousted in coup in January 1972 led by Colonel Ignatius Acheampong. General Frederick Akuffo takes over in 1978.
June 1979: Akuffo is deposed in a coup led by Flight Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings. Elections are held and in September Rawlings hands over power to a new president, Hilla Limann. Limann is also overthrown in coup in 1981, again led by Rawlings, after two years of weak economic policies. Rawlings is elected president in November 1992.
June 1994: Leaders of Ghana's warring northern tribes sign a peace accord after fighting erupted in the north in February, pitting landless Konkombas against three allied tribes. Independent sources estimated up to 5,000 people were killed by mid-April.
January 2001: Former opposition leader John Kufuor is sworn in as president after Rawlings served the two elected terms he was allowed.
June 2007: London-based Tullow Oil Plc says it has found up to 600 million barrels of oil offshore.
January 2009: Electoral Commission declares John Atta Mills winner after he defeated Nana Akufo-Addo of the ruling New Patriotic Party in run off presidential elections.
July 2009: Visiting U.S. President Barack Obama assures Africa it will not be sidelined from world affairs and hails democratic Ghana as a model for other African countries.
December 2010:Mills opens the valves in a ceremony at a floating oil platform off the country's Atlantic coast. Initial production of around 120,000 bpd will rank Ghana as sub-Saharan Africa's seventh largest producer.
July 2011: Mills is chosen as ruling National Democratic Congress party's candidate for the 2012 presidential election, defeating Nana Konadu Agyemang-Rawlings, wife of the former president.
December 2011: Ghana says it has exported 23.5 million barrels of crude oil from the Jubilee oilfield in its first year of production. Tullow Oil is the lead company of the consortium operating the Jubilee field.
July 24, 2012: Mills dies in office.
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Leave a Comment:
Hmmm. Died unexpectedly after a short illness a few hours long only "months" before his possible re-election.
Hmmm. No details.
OK, it was natural right?!
The tin-foil hat buttsh!t got old long ago. Ever think the reason there isn't more details might be because it happened today?
People do have health problems later in life.
His food taster had the day off.
@Creek Dog I'm a bit skeptical about the timing and suddenness too.
Guess I've watched too many shows on Court TV where situations like this turn out to be arsenic poisoning or something. :)
In that area if the body was in one piece it's considered "natural".
If it was Nigeria, Cote d'Ivoire, Guinea, Congo, Zimbabwe or any other African kleptocracy I'd be skeptical, but Ghana has been a stable democracy for the last 30 years. This looks to me like a heart attack caused by a lifetime of eating food deep fried in palm oil.
Jerry Rawlings, the father of democracy in Ghana, set the stage for a stable democratic government and it will likely continue into the future.
Palm oil does not cause heart attacks. Unfortunately, this type of ignorance has mislead many West Africans to jump on the Western "healthy" vegetable oil bandwagon & suffer the health consequences. Palm oil is one of the healthiest plant saturated fats on this earth. It is a traditional food that has nourished West Africans for thousands of years. If you'd like to learn more about this healthy oil I reccomend you read The Palm Oil Miracle by Bruce Fife and many other well reasearched articles and studies in well respected journals. BTW vegetable oil (in West Africa that's usually soy bean oil) is a poison and should never be consumed by people or animals! It will cause hardened arteries, infertility, make u fat, etc. Just look around at all the ppl who eat nothing but vegetable oils, they're fat & sick.
Why would the President of Ghana need to come to the United States for medical treatment? I thought our healthcare system sucked and all the other countries' healthcare systems were perfect since they all have universal healthcare?
Because America leads the world in health technology and in most other areas of technology likewise.
What sucks, is the distribution of this technology.
And, no. It is not socialism to mandate everyone pays into a private insurance (for profit) system to help in the distribution of this technology.
The government mandates if you drive a car, you must have insurance to protect yourself and others on the road.
The government will like to mandate, that you live in a system and participates in commerce and uses the commons of the society, pay insurance for a health system that one day you will likely to use.
America has the most billionaires on earth, yet still is at 27th in the median wealth of all nations. In Canada for instance, the average person is wealthier and happier than 99% of all Americans.
Romney's agenda is to make sure this gap continues to grow. They say, in theory it should trickle down, and if it doesn't...ah well.
That's why Canadians come to the United States for Medical treatment that they have to wait a long time to get at home.
That's why Canadians come to the United States to get medical treatment that they would have to wait a long time to get at home.
Jaimo, Which continent do you think Ghana is in? Ghana is in West African and a third world country. The president was in the US for medical care because all African presidents and their ministers care about themselves and prefer to travel abroad for medical care because the health system in these countries are dilapidated. President Atta Mills died of an acute cardiac arrest which Ghanaian doctors do not know anything about. Our doctors only learn how to treat acute cardiac arrest only when they have traveled to the western world and trained on that. Nurses are not even taught how to do CPR, and there is nothing like ACLS training in that country for both doctors and nurses. So go figure
It's slobama's fault!
Mabel, I think you hit this one dead on. I think that we all need to remember that these things do actually happen. With all the ugliness that goes on, I think we are quick to jump to thoughts of foul play but the man was well respected and led his country with positive results.
UN observers should enter the country and take possession of his body so an unbiased autopsy can be performed into his mysterious death circumstances. I smell a rat in the house!!!
Bill Stewart - Your ignorance of the country and facts is apparent.
Poison is common in places like Ghana.........
But we may never know the real story.
This is a sad for Ghana and indeed the rest of the world. President Mills had a great life and tremendous contributions to the world even before he entered politics. As a professor in Law in Ghana and other parts of the world his legacy will continue for a very long time. This is not the time for mischief of any kind since the grief of the nation (Ghana) is unbearable.
It is a well know fact that foreign leaders, diplomats and many wealthy people have been coming to the USA for their health check ups for decades. Anyone ever hear of the Mayo Clinic in MN and now in other parts of the country. Hopefully President Mills died of natural causes. Condolences to his family, friends and political allies around the world. And, hopefully Ghana will maintain its peaceful democracy.
Ghana?? Gowanna. I'd rather be in Peoria.
My condolences to his family - throat cancer can be a difficult foe.
My condolences to his family - throat cancer can be a difficult foe.
President Mills has had cancer for several years. His political party has been trying to keep this a secret from the rest of the country. There is no shame in cancer or disease, I don't see why our African presidents keep hiding their illness.
But he eventually died of an acute cardiac arrest. Cancer did not kill him.
My condolences to his family, friends and country.
This will serve as a lesson for African leaders, ministers, and all the members of parliament who think that the best solution is to steal the countries resources and go abroad for medical care when their country's health care is so dilapidated. The president had an acute cardiac arrest but because this is a strange condition in that part of the world he died.
Until African leaders start focusing on building better hospitals and training their health care personnel this problem will continue to occur, even though they always fly to the US, Britain, Canada for medical and pay a lot of money for that. Not all medical conditions or acute illnesses can sustain a 6-9 hour flight, and that is what happened today. After ignoring health care in Ghana for too long the president has paid with his life.
Any way my condolences to his family and the people of Ghana. I hope a leader will arise and solve the health care system in Africa with her dilapidated infrastructure, lack of equipment's, and inadequate health care training.
A good friend of mine lost his 19 year old son there unexpectedly too, along with another 19 year old, and a 37(or so) year old.
They were all U.S.N. on leave. They say all of them drank themselves to death together. It was a closed casket funeral.
We don't believe the story ! His father is a 20 year veteran of the U.S. Navy.
R.I.P. Patrick
wow....WOW...
This is HUGE NEWS.!...!...!
Almost is "huge" as Hickory Pines' HUGE 8 - 5UPSET of Dorelle Lutheran in 5th grade Girls Basketball in Tuckerville South Carolina.
Cortney Billings led the way with a season high 5 points, and Annie Mae Jenkins had a team high 3 rebounds. But Connie Simms stole the show with her dazzling 2 foot jump shot to put the game out of reach mid way thru the 4th quarter.
in other words....
WHO CARES ABOUT GHANA...PRINT NEWS THAT MATTERS ! ! ! ! !
deleted
My condolences to the family of President Mills and the people of Ghana.
wow....WOW...
This is HUGE NEWS.!...!...!
Almost is "huge" as Hickory Pines' HUGE 8 - 5UPSET of Dorelle Lutheran in 5th grade Girls Basketball in Tuckerville South Carolina.
Cortney Billings led the way with a season high 5 points, and Annie Mae Jenkins had a team high 3 rebounds. But Connie Simms stole the show with her dazzling 2 foot jump shot to put the game out of reach mid way thru the 4th quarter.
in other words....
WHO CARES ABOUT GHANA...PRINT NEWS THAT MATTERS ! ! ! ! !