Former US President Jimmy Carter, who won the Nobel Peace Prize, has died at the age of 100.
The Carter Center confirmed that Mr Carter passed away this afternoon in Plains, Georgia.
“My father was a hero, not only to me but to everyone who believes in peace, human rights, and unselfish love,” said Chip Carter, the former president’s son.
“My brothers, sister, and I shared him with the rest of the world through these common beliefs. The world is our family because of the way he brought people together, and we thank you for honoring his memory by continuing to live these shared beliefs,” he said.
Mr Carter had been in hospice care since mid-February 2023 at his home in Plains, Georgia – the same small town where he was born and once ran a peanut farm before becoming governor of the Peach State and running for the White House.
Mr Carter died “peacefully” at his home in Plains, “surrounded by his family,” The Carter Center said in a statement.
Mr Carter was the oldest living ex-US leader and the nation’s longest-lived president — an outcome that seemed unlikely back in 2015 when the Southern Democrat revealed he had brain cancer.
But the US Navy veteran and fervent Christian repeatedly defied the odds to enjoy a long and fruitful post-presidency, after four years in the Oval Office often seen as disappointing.
A Democrat, he served as president from January 1977 to January 1981 after defeating incumbent Republican President Gerald Ford in the 1976 US election.
Mr Carter was swept from office four years later in an electoral landslide as voters embraced Republican challenger Ronald Reagan, the former actor and California governor.
Along the way, he earned a reputation as a better former president than he was a president – a status he readily acknowledged.
His one-term presidency was marked by the highs of the 1978 Camp David accords between Israel and Egypt, bringing some stability to the Middle East.
Read more: Jimmy Carter, a man who dedicated his life to promoting human rights
But it was dogged by an economy in recession, persistent unpopularity and the embarrassment of the Iran hostage crisis that consumed his final 444 days in office.
IHis wife, Rosalynn Carter, died on 19 November 2023, at age 96.
He looked frail when he attended her memorial service and funeral in a wheelchair.
Mr Carter left office profoundly unpopular but worked energetically for decades on humanitarian causes. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 in recognition of his “untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development.”
Mr Carter is survived by the couple’s four children, three sons and a daughter.
