Kenneth Kaunda: Former president of Zambia dies aged 97

One of the giants of Africa’s liberation struggles, Kenneth Kaunda has died in Zambia at the age of 97. He had been admitted to hospital in Lusaka earlier this week suffering from pneumonia.

In the 1950s, Mr Kaunda was a key figure in what was then Northern Rhodesia’s independence movement from Britain.

He became Zambia’s first president in 1964 and led the country through decades of one-party rule.

Mr Kaunda was a strong supporter of efforts to end apartheid in South Africa, and also backed liberation movements in Mozambique and what is now Zimbabwe.