Nelson Mandela remains hospitalized

Former President Nelson Mandela, 94, hospitalized since Wednesday over a lung infection, can now breathe “without difficulty” after spending a fourth night in the hospital, while the country prayed for his health.

Nelson Mandela

This Sunday morning, Mac Maharaj, presidential spokesman, told AFP news agency that there was nothing new.

“Mandela is responding (to the treatment), he’s making steady progress, I have no update since this morning. I do not even know how he spent the night, “he added.

The hero of the struggle against apartheid was relieved by the drainage of a pleural effusion caused by a severe pneumonia, said on Saturday the presidential agency. Thanks to this drainage, he “is now able to breathe without difficulty,” said the agency.