BREAKING NEWS: Nelson Mandela, former South African President, is dead

He died on Thursday after a protracted battle with lung infection.

In a nationwide broadcast announcing his demise, President Jacob Zuma said that Mr. Mandela passed on peacefully in the company of his family.

The president also said that Mr. Mandela, who was president of South Africa between 1994 and 1999, would be accorded a state funeral.

All flags in the Republic of South Africa are to fly at half mast from Friday until the end of Mr. Mandela's funeral, President Zuma added.

"Our thoughts and prayer are with the Mandela family. To them we owe a debt of gratitude, they have sacrificed much to ensure that our people will be free.

"Our thoughts are with his wives, children, grand children, great great and the entire family.
"Our thoughts are with his friends, colleagues who fought with Madiba over a lifetime of struggles.


"What made him great was precisely what made him human. So in him is what we see ourselves and in him we saw much of ourselves," President Zuma said.

Mr. Mandela died at the age of 97. He became the first black president of South Africa after spending 27 years in prison.