Former President, John Agyekum Kufuor has expressed sorrow about the passing of celebrated African leader, Robert Mugabe.

Eulogising Mugabe in a statement, Mr. Kufuor said the former Zimbabwean freedom fighter, “was leader…with a high level of intellect.”

“He led his nation through the struggles of liberation from colonialism and was very successful as a freedom fighter,” he wrote.

According to the Second President of the Fourth Republic, Mugabe’s “earlier life of vicissitudes in long political detention, exile, racism, resistance to land grab in his nation and general colonial imposition, hardened him into an uncompromising political leader.”

He added: “nevertheless, he belongs with the liberation leaders of the African continent and the heroes who wrestled Africa from the clutches of colonialism and apartheid.”

Mugabe died on September 6. The BBC said he had been receiving treatment in a hospital in Singapore since April.

He was 95.

Read the ex-President’s full statement below