Zambia’s former President Dr. Kenneth Kaunda has passed away on Thursday.

This is after he was admitted to the Maina Soko Military Hospital in Lusaka earlier this week.

Kaunda became president of Zambia in 1964 when the southern African nation won its independence from Britain.

He was in power until 1991 and was among the continent’s few surviving liberation heroes.

Earlier this week, President Edgar Lungu urged the nation to pray for the former president so that “God may touch him with his healing hand”.