Guinea Bissau president dies in Paris

President Malam Bacai Sanha, who was elected in this tiny, coup-prone nation on Africa's western coast about two years ago after the previous leader was assassinated, died Monday in Paris after a lengthy hospitalization, the Associated Press reported.

The official statement said, "With pain and sadness, the president's office reports to the people of Guinea Bissau and to the international community the death of His Excellency the President, Malam Bacai Sanha, this morning, January 9, at Val de Grace Hospital where he was being treated," the Reuters reports.

An official at Guinea-Bissau's embassy in Paris, Luis Mendes, said Sanha died Monday morning at the Val de Grace hospital after being hospitalized in France "for about a month" with an unspecified ailment, Mendes said.

The head of the National Assembly, Raimundo Pereira, is again expected to take over until new elections can be organized. He already has served as interim head of state after the 2009 assassination of former President Joao Bernardo "Nino" Vieira, the Associated Press informs.

Officials declared seven days of mourning. They did not say when elections might be held.