BREAKING: Jerry Rawlings, ex-Ghanaian president, dies from COVID-19

Former President Jerry Rawlings of Ghana has died from complications of COVID-19

We gathered that the ex-president died at Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra, capital of Ghana, on Thursday morning.

A military ruler, who later joined politics, Rawlings ruled Ghana from 1981 to 2001.

He led a military junta until 1992, and then served two terms as the democratically elected president of Ghana.

A flight lieutenant of the Ghanaian Air Force, Rawlings first staged military coup as a young revolutionary on May 15, 1979, five weeks before scheduled elections to return the country to civilian rule.

When it failed, he was imprisoned, publicly court-martialed and sentenced to death.

After initially handing power over to a civilian government, he took back control of the country on 31 December 1981 as the chairman of the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC).