Lesotho King Killed in Car Crash, Premier Tells Nation

King Moshoeshoe II of Lesotho, a small mountainous kingdom surrounded by South Africa, died in a car accident early Monday, Prime Minister Ntsu Mokhehle said in a broadcast to the nation.

Mokhehle ordered national mourning until the king’s burial, which is likely to be held over the weekend in the nation of 2 million people.

Moshoeshoe’s wife, Queen Mamohato, will act as regent until the College of Chiefs appoints a successor. It is expected that Moshoeshoe’s son Letsie will succeed him.

Educated at an English school and Oxford University, Moshoeshoe, 57, was made paramount chief by the British colonial administration 36 years ago.

He became king under the independence constitution of 1966 and served until 1990, when he was ousted by military rulers. He returned to the throne Jan. 25 of last year.

President Nelson Mandela of South Africa expressed “profound shock” at the news of his death.

Mandela made a state visit to Lesotho last year, and South Africa had been instrumental in returning Moshoeshoe last year.

Mandela said the death of the king, whose country gave South Africa’s now-ruling African National Congress moral support during the fight against apartheid, was a great loss, not only to Lesotho, but to all of Africa.

“King Moshoeshoe II was a great friend of the people of South Africa, an able leader and one of the world’s reigning monarchs who unequivocally embraced democracy within the context and traditions of their nations,” he said in a statement.

The circumstances of the accident were not immediately known. The prime minister said it occurred in the Mantsonyane area of Maseru district, between Ha Noha and Marakebei.

Moshoeshoe’s elder son was installed as King Letsie III in 1990 by Lesotho’s former military rulers, who had forced Moshoeshoe into exile.

Letsie gave way to his father in January last year under pressure from South Africa and other regional states after having sparked a constitutional crisis.