Reuters photo.

39th US president Jimmy Carter dies at 100

Washington: Former US president Jimmy Carter, who led the country from 1977 to 1981, died on Sunday. The 39th president of the US, Carter was a Nobel Peace Prize laureate and 100 years old. He survived with his four children, while his wife passed away last year, Agence France-Presse.

Carter, who started from humble beginnings in rural Georgia, has been in hospice care since February 2023. He started as a peanut farmer in Georgia, was a US Navy veteran, became a governor of the Peach State and ran for president.

His nonprofit foundation, Carter Center, said in a statement that he died peacefully at his home in Plains, Georgia and was surrounded by his family.

He was the longest-lived president of the US, which was nearly unlikely after he revealed in 2015 that he had brain cancer.

A Democrat, Carter was committed to human rights and social justice. He had brokered a peace deal between Israel and Egypt under the Camp David Accords.

Carter founded the Carter Center in 1982 in a bid to pursue his vision of world diplomacy, and he was honoured with the Nobel Peace Prize for his contribution to promoting social and economic justice in 2002.

He was involved in tackling global problems, including those in North Korea and Bosnia.

"America and the world lost an extraordinary leader, statesman and humanitarian," current President Joe Biden and his wife Jill said in a statement.

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