Desmond Tutu admitted into hospital for recurring illness

dimeji akinloye 22:20 - 24 August 2016

Archbishop Desmond Tutu speaks during a memorial service for former South African President Nelson Mandela at Westminster Abbey in London March 3, 2014. REUTERS/John Stillwell/Pool/Files

Tutu, 84, had spent a week in the hospital for the same ailment in 2015.

South African anti-apartheid campaigner

"He is expected to remain in hospital for a week or two. The Archbishop underwent similar treatment last year," the cleric's daughter, Thandeka Tutu-Gxashe said in a statement on Wednesday, August 24.

However, the type of infection the Nobel Peace Prize laureate is suffering from was not revealed, but the family said not related to the prostate cancer he has been living with for nearly 20 years.

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The former Anglican archbishop of Cape Town often used the pulpit to criticize white-minority rule, which ended in 1994.