Kumba Yala | Nation's ex-leader, 61

Kumba Yala, 61, former president of the tiny West African nation of Guinea-Bissau died Friday, state media announced, citing his doctor.

Mr. Yala was elected in 2000 and ousted in a military coup three years later.

The former philosophy teacher had run for the presidency again in 2012, but another coup kept the country from holding the runoff vote.

During his tenure as president, Mr. Yala grew widely unpopular amid a general economic decline, failing to pay salaries of the civil servants and soldiers who would later overthrow him. Guinea-Bissau has been wracked by coups and corruption ever since independence from Portugal in 1974. - AP