Former Libyan Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril Has Passed Away

Aljazeera reports that the former Prime Minister of Libya, Mahmoud Jibril, has passed away in a hospital in Cairo, Egypt, after having tested positive for the coronavirus.

Jibril was aged 68.

Shortly before the Arab Spring uprisings which eventually led to the ousting of Egypt's long-standing leader, Muammar Gaddafi, Jibril had been the economic advisor to Gaddafi. After joining the revolution, Jibril then led the National Transitional Council as Prime Minister before Egypt held its first free elections in four decades in 2012.

Before Jibril's death, Libya had confirmed 18 coronavirus cases and just one death. Jibril now becomes the second Libyan national to die from the growing COVID-19 outbreak.

Currently, the total number of coronavirus cases on the African continent stands at just over 9000 with at least 445 reported deaths, according to BBC's Coronavirus in Africa tracker. South Sudan is the latest African country to confirm its first case of coronavirus while Ethiopia recently announced its first death from the outbreak. Several African countries including South Africa, Zimbabwe and Nigeria are currently on nationwide lockdowns as part of efforts to curb the spread of the outbreak. Read our rolling coverage of the coronavirus outbreak in Africa here.

Other African public figures who have died from the coronavirus in the past few weeks include Cameroonian Jazz legend, Manu Dibango, former President of Congo, Jacques Joaquim Yhombi-Opango, former president of Marseilles football club, Pape Diouf, former Prime Minister of Somalia, Nur Hassan Hussein, as well as Burkina Faso's Vice-President of Parliament, Rose-Marie Compaore.