MANDELA'S PASSING: Goodluck Jonathan, Other Leaders, FIFA Pay Tributes

"He is now resting… he is now at peace," said South African President Jacob Zuma about the death of Nelson Mandela, the towering moral giant of the 20th and 21st centuries, who has died aged 50. "Our nation has lost its greatest son." As soon as the news about his death started spreading in the media and via social networks, thousands of tributes emerged.

Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan also mourns the loss of one of history's 'greatest liberators' in his condolence message to South Africa.

"Mandela will always be remembered and honoured by all mankind as one of its greatest liberators, a wise, courageous and compassionate leader, and an icon of true democracy," Jonathan said, describing the former South African president as a "source of inspiration to the oppressed peoples all over the world."

His passing will "create a huge vacuum that will be difficult to fill in our continent," Mr. President concluded.

Meanwhile, first black president of the United States of America Barack Obama, too, decried the loss of the "profoundly good" man who "took history in his hands and bent the arc of the moral universe towards justice."

President Obama remembers Nelson Mandela: "A man who took history in his hands and bent the arc of the moral universe towards justice."

- Barack Obama (@BarackObama) December 5, 2013