Colin Powell, the first Black US Secretary of state and the top military officer died today at the age of 84 due to complications from COVID-19. He was fully vaccinated, his family said in a statement on Facebook. Powell was named to senior posts by three Republican presidents and reached the top of the US military as it was regaining its vigour after the trauma of the Vietnam War. He was wounded in Vietnam and served as US national security adviser under President Ronald Reagan from 1987 to 1989. As a four-star Army general, he was chairman of the military's Joint Chiefs of Staff under President George H.W. Bush during the 1991 Gulf War in which US-led forces expelled Iraqi troops from neighbouring Kuwait. In 2008, he broke with his party to endorse Democrat Barack Obama, who became the first Black elected to the White House.