Nelson Mandela Dead at 95

Nelson Mandela

South Africa's current leader announced late Thursday that, after years suffering from health ailments, the man known widely by his clan name of Madiba died at 8:50 p.m. (1:50 p.m. ET) surrounded by family. 

President Jacob Zuma announcing his death, said, “He is now resting. He is now at peace," he added, "Our nation has lost its greatest son. Our people have lost a father."

Mandela's body reportedly had been moved to a military hospital in Pretoria. It's expected to be embalmed in the next three to four days, after which there will be a public memorial service at a Johannesburg soccer stadium, according to South African Government.

His casket will lie in state for several days in Pretoria, and next week - probably Friday or Saturday when it will be flown to his ancestral hometown of Qunu for a state funeral and burial, the sources said.

The South African Government has ordered flags around South Africa to be "flown at half-mast," something that other countries including the United States and United Kingdom are also doing.

Describing Nelson Mandela’s death, American President, Obama said, "We've lost one of the most influential, courageous and profoundly good human beings that any of us will share time with on this earth,

"He no longer belongs to us. He belongs to the ages."

Mandela stayed out of the public spotlight in recent years due to his medical issues, including a hospitalization for a lung infection in June.

On September 1, he was discharged from a Pretoria hospital where he had been receiving treatment since June. He was later moved to a home in the Johannesburg suburb of Houghton, where a bedroom was transformed into an intensive care unit, according to his ex-wife, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela.

Last month, Madikizela-Mandela told South Africa's Sunday Independent newspaper that tubes used to clear his lungs meant to prevent infections also made it so that he could not speak. She said then that he "remains quite ill," with doctors tending to him regularly until he finally passed on yesterday.

Mandela emerged from prison more prominent than ever and in 1994, four years after his release and one year after earning the Nobel Peace Prize with de Klerk, who was then South Africa's president, he became South Africa's first black president.

May his soul rest in peace!