President of the UN General Assembly (UNGA), Abdulla Shahid, has expressed heartfelt condolences to the government and people of South Africa over the death of Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu.

Shahid said on Sunday on his twitter handle that he was deeply saddened to note the sad passing of the Archbishop.

The UNGA president said he was sad about the demise of the icon, who led a global campaign to end South Africa’s apartheid regime and then helped in healing the nation’s wounds.

Similarly, World Health Organisation (WHO) Director General, Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus, expressed sympathy to the people of South Africa over the death of the Archbishop.

“My condolences go to the many people in South Africa and worldwide, whose lives have been touched by the late Desmond Tutu.

“Archbishop Tutu was a peacemaker, a champion of justice and health equity and a man whose great wisdom was matched only by his love devotion to helping others,’’ Ghebreyesus said.

Meanwhile, South Africa President, Cyril Ramaphosa, said the passing of Desmond Tutu marked another chapter of bereavement of the nation’s farewell to generation of outstanding South Africans.

Ramaphosa, in a statement by his Minister in the Presidency, Mondli Gungubele, said Desmond Tutu was a patriot without equal; a leader of principle and pragmatism who gave meaning to the biblical insight that faith without works is dead.

Archbishop Tutu, the last surviving South African laureate of the Nobel Peace Prize, passed away on Sunday in Cape Town at the age of 90.