Ghana’s President John Mills Dies of Undisclosed Causes

John Evans Atta Mills, former President of the Republic of Ghana, speaks during the United Nations General Assembly September 23, 2011 at UN headquarters in New York. (Stan Honda/AFP/Getty Images)

The president of the West African nation of Ghana, John Mills, died Tuesday in a hospital a few hours after being admitted. He was 68.

John Dramani Mahama, the vice president, will take Mills’s place.

“It is with a heavy heart and deep sorrow that we announce the sudden and untimely death of the President of the Republic of Ghana,” a statement from the president’s office reads. There were no other details released, including the cause of death.

News site Ghana MMA reported that Mills was “suffering from a long battle with sickness” when he died, but also did not elaborate.

In June, before he visited the United States, Mills had not been seen in public for nearly two weeks and underwent a routine medical checkup in New York. Before he left the United States, rumors spread that he had died but he addressed the media to dispel those rumors, Africa News reported.