(CNN) — The president of the West African nation of Ghana, John Evans Atta Mills, has died, his chief of staff said in a statement today.
He died at a military hospital this afternoon a few hours after becoming ill, according to the statement, signed by John Henry Martey Newman. The vice president is expected to address the nation, the statement said.
He was 68.
Mills was a former law professor and a tax expert. He was Ghana’s vice president from 1997 to 2000.
Before his political career, he taught at the University of Ghana and also was a visiting lecturer at Temple University in Pennsylvania and Leiden University in Holland.
