Zambian President Michael Sata dies

Zambian President Michael Sata died late Tuesday in London, where he had been receiving treatment for an undisclosed illness, Zambian officials announced Wednesday.

"The head of state passed on Oct. 28,” cabinet secretary Roland Msiska told state television. “President Sata's demise is deeply regretted. The nation will be kept informed on burial arrangements."

Msiska said Sata's wife, Christine Kaseba, and other family members were with the 77-year-old president when he died.

An official told Al Jazeera that the death had been announced to the cabinet on Wednesday morning.

Vice President Guy Scott has been named acting leader, defense and justice minister Edgar Lungu said.

"Dr. Scott will act as president of the republic of Zambia until the country goes for a presidential by-election," said Lungu, announcing the appointment of Africa's second white leader since South Africa's FW de Klerk.

Zambia’s constitution requires presidential elections to be held within three months of a president’s death.

Adama Gaye, an Africa analyst speaking from Tunisia, said the country ought to select a younger politician who has the physical capacity to run the country and who understands the modern issues of Zambia.

"This country has some of the most important natural resources in the world, including copper and iron et cetera," Gaye told Al Jazeera. "Zambia is a rich country, but unfortunately it is weak in human resources. We hope that the democratic [multi-party] process that was ushered in 1991 will yield to a mature process which will lead to the selection of a qualified person who can transform the country."

Sata had left Zambia for medical treatment on Oct. 19 accompanied by his wife and family members, according to a brief government statement that gave no further details.

There had been no official update on his condition. Lungu, who was the previous acting president, led celebrations last week to mark the landlocked nation's 50th anniversary of independence from Britain.

For supporters who voted Sata into office in 2011, he was a no-nonsense man of action.  Critics, however, reviled the former policeman, trade unionist and taxidermist as an authoritarian populist. 

Detractors, political foes, the media and even allies frequently came under attack from a man who earned the nickname "King Cobra."

He once publicly chastised his whole cabinet, threatening to collapse his own government if they did not do a better job.

The final period of Sata's rule saw a crackdown on political opponents and critical journalists who reported on his long-suspected illness and frequent "working trips" abroad, apparently for medical treatment.

Concern over Sata's health has been mounting in the country since June, when he disappeared from the public eye without explanation and was then reported to be getting medical treatment in Israel.

He missed a scheduled speech at the U.N. General Assembly in September amid reports that he had fallen ill in his New York hotel.

A few days before that, he had attended the opening of parliament in Lusaka, joking: "I am not dead." Sata has not been seen in public since he returned to Zambia from New York in late September.

Sata, who once worked as a railway porter in London, had been the country's president since September 2011 after winning a tight presidential race against then-incumbent Rupiah Banda.

Al Jazeera and wire services