Former Ghana president John Atta Mills has finally been laid to rest.
His body lay in state early Friday, for a third straight day, for a final viewing before being placed in a black limousine for the short drive to the funeral site under military guard.
Thousands of mourners from presidents and dignitaries to ordinary Ghanaians arrived in the capital’s Independence Square on Friday for the funeral of former President John Atta Mills.
Among those who viewed Mills’ body before the service were Cote d’Ivoire President Alassane Ouattara, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia as well as the leaders of Benin and neighbouring Togo.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also attended the funeral.
“He was like a brother to me. I will surely miss him,” Togolese President Faure Gnassingbe told journalists.
Benin’s leader, also the current African Union chairman, Thomas Boni Yayi, described Mills as “passionate about peace in Africa and in the region.”
His death on July 24 following an illness came as a shock to many Ghanaians, despite rumours that he had been sick and reports that he suffered from throat cancer.
Mills’s death just five months ahead of polls in which he was to seek re-election upended the presidential race in a country that recently became a significant oil producer and is praised as a stable democracy in an often turbulent region.
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