Ex-US Secretary of State Collin Powell…dies aged 84

Tributes are being paid to former US Secretary of State Colin Powell, who has died of COVID-19 complications aged 84.

The former top military officer died on Monday morning, his family said. He was fully vaccinated.

Powell became the first African-American secretary of state in 2001 under Republican President George W Bush.

He also sparked controversy for helping garner support for the Iraq War.

“We have lost a remarkable and loving husband, father, grandfather and a great American,” the family said in a statement, thanking the staff at the Walter Reid Medical Center “for their caring treatment”.

Powell had previously been diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a type of blood cancer which may have made him more susceptible to Covid symptoms, according to US media, as well as Parkinson’s disease.

George W Bush was among the first to pay tribute to “a great public servant” as well as “a family man and a friend” who “was such a favourite of presidents that he earned the Presidential Medal of Freedom – twice”.

Mr Bush’s vice-president Dick Cheney saluted Powell as “a man who loved his country and served her long and well” while also being “a trailblazer and role model for so many”.

Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair – who worked closely with Powell during the early years of the Iraq War – said he was someone of “immense capability and integrity” who was “a great companion, with a lovely and self-deprecating sense of humour”.

Remembrances also poured in from prominent African American leaders. Civil rights activist Al Sharpton called him “a sincere and committed man”, while members of the Congressional Black Caucus praised his “legacy of valour and integrity”.

US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin, the first black man to serve in that role, hailed Powell as “a tremendous personal friend and mentor” who would be “impossible to replace”.

Once a moderate Republican, Powell became a trusted military adviser to a number of leading US politicians.

But he broke with his party to endorse Barack Obama in 2008, as well as Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Joe Biden in 2020. A sharp critic of Republican President Donald Trump, Powell said he could no longer call himself a Republican after the violent January6 riot at the US Capitol. -BBC