Tunisia’s 92-year-old president Essebsi has died said the president's office
ADVERTISEMENTTunisia’s 92-year-old president, Beji Caid Essebsi, has died, the presidency said in a statement published on their official Facebook account on Thursday.
The post read:
God is great God is great
To God he has taken and everything has been given.
He passed away this morning Thursday, 25 July 2019, at 2019 hours and 25 minutes late, with the permission of the president of the Republic, Mohamed Baji, the commander of essebsi at the military hospital in Tunisia
The burial ceremony will be announced in time
We belong to God and to him we shall return.
Tunisia's president was readmitted to the hospital after suffering a second health scare in a month, his son has said.
Essebsi, was reportedly suffering from the effects of his previous health scare, which saw him spend a week in hospital in late June over a "severe health crisis".
He has only appeared in public twice since leaving the hospital for the first time at the beginning of July.
Essebsi has 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.
The Independent Electoral Commission said on Thursday that Tunisia would hold a presidential election on September 5.
Mohamed Ennaceur, speaker of Tunisia’s parliament said that he would be the country’s temporary president, in line with the constitution.
In his speech on national television, Ennaceur also called for unity after Essebsi's death.