The immediate former President of Zambia Edgar Chagwa Lungu has passed away.
Lungu died in the morning of June 5, 2025, of complications during a medical surgery which he was undergoing in Johannesburg South Africa
Reports from Lusaka, precisely his political party, have confirmed the late Lungu’s death, quoting the latter’s daughter and that his body is being airlifted to Zambia.
Edgar Lungu served as the President of Zambia from 2015 until 2021, when he lost to Hakainde Hichilema during a free and fair election, something which is rare in most African countries and even Zambia itself.
Previously Lungu served as Minister of Justice and Minister of Defence under President Michael Sata.
When Michael Sata died in October 2014, Lungu was adopted as the candidate of the Patriotic Front in a Convention of the Patriotic Front in Kabwe, for the January 2015 presidential by-election, which was to determine who would serve out the remainder of Sata’s term.
In the election, he narrowly defeated opposition candidate Hakainde Hichilema and took office on 25 January 2015 and was to be elected to a full presidential term in the August 2016 election, again narrowly defeating Hichilema.
Hichilema initially disputed the election result and filed a case at the Constitutional Court to nullify the result. On 5 September, however, the court dismissed the case to Lungu’s favor, with the latter being sworn in for his first full term on 13 September 2016.
But during the Presidential Elections of 2021, Lungu was defeated by long-time opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema.