Hosni Mubarak, Egypt’s President who forced to resign by the military following a popular revolution christened ‘Arab Spring’ in 2011, died on Tuesday at the age of 91.
Mubarak is survived by his wife, Suzanne, and his sons, Gamal and Alaa.
Mubarak, who served as Egypt’s fourth President after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat in 1981, was later jailed for years after the ‘Arab Spring’ uprising, but was freed in 2017 after being acquitted of most charges.
Mubarak’s brother-in-law, General Mounir Thabet, said that the former Egyptian leader died weeks after undergoing surgery, at Cairo’s Galaa Military Hospital.
Throughout his rule, he was an avowed US ally, opponent of all non-State actors and guardian of Egypt’s peace with Israel.
But tens of thousands of young Egyptians rallied for 18 days of unprecedented street protests in Cairo’s central Tahrir Square and elsewhere in 2011, against his rule, calling him ‘a relic, a latter-day pharaoh.’
Mubarak was born in a rural village in the Nile Delta in 1928. He left behind a complicated legacy as his rule was partly characterised by corruption, police brutality, political repression, and entrenched economic problems.
He joined the Egyptian Air Force in 1949, graduating as a pilot the following year.
He rose through the ranks to become the Commander-in-Chief of the Egyptian Air Force in 1972.
Mubarak became a national hero the following year with reports that the Egyptian Air Force dealt a substantial blow to Israeli forces in Sinai during the Yom Kippur War.
Hisharsh stance on security enabled him to maintain the peace treaty with Israel.
Underhis rule, Egypt remained a key United States ally in the region – receiving $1.3bn a year in US military aid by 2011.