Tunisia’s president, Beji Caid Essebsi, has died aged 92.

According to Independent, Essebsi’s death was announced in a statement on Thursday.

Essebsi was reportedly taken to a military hospital on Wednesday before he passed on.

READ ALSO: American, 53, assaults towing van operator at Lagos Airport

Essebsi who was sworn in as President on 31 December 2014 at the age of 88 had been hospitalised late last month and spent a week in hospital after suffering a “severe health crisis”.

He was a Tunisian politician who was the fifth President of Tunisia from December 2014 until his death. Previously he served as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1981 to 1986 and as Prime Minister from February 2011 to December 2011.

Essebsi was the founder of the Nidaa Tounes political party, which won a plurality in the 2014 parliamentary election. In December 2014, he won the first regular presidential election following the Tunisian Revolution, becoming Tunisia’s first freely elected president.