Just In: Ex-Egyptian Leader Hosni Mubarak Dies

Former Egyptian President who ruled the North Africa country for almost 30 years, Hosni Mubarak, has died at the age of 91 years.

Naija News reports that Mubarak was forced to step down as president after a popular revolution in 2011 known as the Arab Spring revolution.

Mubarak, who served as Egypt’s fourth president starting in 1981, was jailed for years after the revolution but was freed in 2017 after being acquitted of most charges.

Aljazeera reports that his brother-in-law, General Mounir Thabet, told Nigeria News news agency, he passed away at Cairo’s Galaa military hospital, weeks after undergoing surgery.

Throughout his rule, he was a stalwart US ally, a bulwark against armed groups, and guardian of Egypt’s peace with Israel. But to the tens of thousands of young Egyptians who rallied for 18 days of unprecedented street protests in Cairo’s central Tahrir Square and elsewhere in 2011, Mubarak was a relic, a latter-day pharaoh.

Mubarak was born in a rural village in the Nile Delta in 1928. He left behind a complicated legacy as his rule was partly characterised by corruption, police brutality, political repression, and entrenched economic problems.

He joined the Egyptian air force in 1949, graduating as a pilot the following year.

He rose through the ranks to become the commander-in-chief of the Egyptian air force in 1972.

Mubarak became a national hero the following year with reports that the Egyptian air force dealt a substantial blow to Israeli forces in Sinai during the Yom Kippur War.

His harsh stance on security enabled him to maintain the peace treaty with Israel.

Under his rule, Egypt remained a key United States ally in the region – receiving $1.3bn a year in US military aid by 2011.