Kenneth Kaunda, Zambia’s founding president and liberation hero, has died, aged 97, at a military hospital in Lusaka where he was being treated for pneumonia, his son, Kambarage, said on Wednesday.

Kaunda ruled Zambia from 1964, when the southern African nation won its independence from Britain, until 1991, and afterwards become one of Africa’s most committed activists against HIV/AIDS.

“I am sad to inform (members) we have lost Mzee. Let’s pray for him,” Kambarage said on the late president’s Facebook page.

(Reporting by Chris Mfula; Writing by Tim Cocks; Editing by Alison Williams)