Archbishop Desmond Tutu, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize and a veteran of South Africa’s struggle against the white minority government, died this Sunday (26) at the age of 90, according to the country’s presidency.
Tutu was diagnosed with prostate cancer in the late 1990s and in recent years has been hospitalized on several occasions to treat infections associated with his cancer treatment.
“Ultimately, at age 90, he died peacefully at the Oasis Frail Care Center in Cape Town this morning,” said Dr. Ramphela Mamphele, interim president of the Archbishop Desmond Tutu IP Trust and Coordinator of the Office of the Archbishop in a statement. on behalf of the Tutu family.
However, according to Reuters, she did not provide details on the cause of death.
In 1984, Tutu won the Nobel Peace Prize for his non-violent opposition to apartheid. A decade later, he witnessed the end of that regime and chaired a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, created to unearth atrocities committed during those dark days.
“The passing of Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu is another mournful chapter in our nation’s farewell to a generation of notable South Africans who bequeathed us a liberated South Africa,” said the country’s President, Cyril Ramaphosa.
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