Former Libya Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril dies from coronavirus

Former Libyan Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril has died from the coronavirus, his party said.

Jibril, 68, died on Sunday in Cairo where he had been hospitalised for two weeks, said Khaled al-Mrimi, secretary of the National Forces Alliance.

He had been admitted to the Ganzouri Specialized Hospital in Cairo on March 21 after suffering from cardiac arrest and three days later tested positive for coronavirus, hospital director Hisham Wagdy said.

"He started ... recovering the day before yesterday but then he began deteriorating again," Wagdy told the AFP news agency, confirming that Jibril died at 2pm local time.

Jibril was the head of the National Forces Alliance, a coalition of Libyan liberal parties formed in 2012, a year after the ouster and killing of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.