Benin Republic’s former leader Mathieu Kerekou, who led the country over 30 years after first seizing power in 1972, has died aged 82.
Kerekou was nicknamed “the Chameleon” because of his changing political affiliations.
After first embracing Marxism, he later helped pave the way for multi-party politics in 1991, returning to power in 1996 as a democratically elected president.
For this reason, he has been hailed as “the father of the democracy” in Benin.
The government has announced a week of national mourning with flags to be flown at half-mast across the country from Friday.
