Leaders express sorrow over passing of Mandela

World leaders expressed their sadness and sorrow over the passing of the former South African President and anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela, who died at his home on Thursday after a battle with lung infections. Once a political prisoner, he spent 27 years behind bars in South Africa fighting apartheid. He has also been handed countless awards for his contributions to peace, including the Nobel Peace Prize. Announcing his passing was South African President Jacob Zuma, who made a statement on the news broadcast on national TV. "He is now resting. He is now at peace. Our nation has lost its greatest son. Our people have lost a father. Although we knew that this day would come, nothing can diminish our sense of a profound and enduring loss," he said. "His tireless struggle for freedom earned him the respect of the world. His humility, his compassion, and his humanity earned him their love. Our thoughts and prayers are with the Mandela family. To them we owe a debt of gratitude. "They have sacrificed much and endured much so that our people could be free. Our thoughts are with his wife Mrs. Graca Machel, his former wife Ms Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, with his children, his grand-children, his great grand-children and the entire family. "Our thoughts are with his friends, comrades and colleagues who fought alongside Madiba over the course of a lifetime of struggle. "Our thoughts are with the South African people who today mourn the loss of the one person who, more than any other, came to embody their sense of a common nationhood. "Our thoughts are with the millions of people across the world who embraced Madiba as their own, and who saw his cause as their cause. "This is the moment of our deepest sorrow. Our nation has lost its greatest son. Yet, what made Nelson Mandela great was precisely what made him human. We saw in him what we seek in ourselves. "And in him we saw so much of ourselves." President Barack Obama, who spoke by phone on Thursday evening with South African President Jacob Zuma to express his "heartfelt condolences" on the loss, described Mandela as an "extraordinary example of moral courage, kindness and humility," according to a White House statement. Mandela "influenced his own life, as well as those of millions around the world," the statement added. Obama reaffirmed that "the strong and historic partnership between the United States and South Africa will continue to draw strength from Mandela's legacy as we work together to promote equality, reconciliation and human dignity, and to build a more just and prosperous world." Later, speaking at the White House, President Obama, himself the United States' first black president, hailed Mandela as being "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. "I am one of the countless millions who drew inspiration from Nelson Mandela's life," said Obama, who is the first African-American US president. "My very first political action, the first thing I ever did that involved an issue or a policy or politics, was a protest against apartheid. I studied his words and his writings," he said. The day Mandela was released from prison in 1990, he said this gave him "a sense of what human beings can do when they are guided by their hopes and not by their fears. "And like so many around the globe, I cannot fully imagine my own life without the example that Nelson Mandela set, and so long as I live I will do what I can to learn from him." Through his "fierce dignity and unbending will to sacrifice his own freedom for the freedom of others," Mandela transformed South Africa "and moved all of us," Obama said. "His journey from a prisoner to a president embodied the promise that human beings, and countries, can change for the better. His commitment to transfer power and reconcile with those who jailed him set an example that all humanity should aspire to, whether in the lives of nations or our own personal lives." The anti-apartheid revolutionary "bent the arc of the moral universe toward justice," Obama said. "May God Bless his memory and keep him in peace."