Namibian president Hage Geingob died early yesterday in a hospital in Windhoek, the Namibian presidential office said in a statement.
He was 82.
Geingob, who was serving his second term as president, revealed last month that he was receiving treatment for cancer.
Photo: EPA-EFE
“It is with utmost sadness and regret that I inform you that our beloved Dr. Hage G. Geingob, the President of the Republic of Namibia has passed on today,” read the statement on X, formerly Twitter, signed by Namibian Acting President Nangolo Mbumba. “At his side, was his dear wife Madame Monica Geingos and his children.”
A biopsy following a routine medical checkup last month had revealed “cancerous cells,” Geingob’s office said at the time.
First elected Namibian president in 2014, Geingob was the country’s longest-serving prime minister and third president.
Up until his death, he had been receiving treatment at Lady Pohamba Hospital in Windhoek.
“The Namibian nation has lost a distinguished servant of the people, a liberation struggle icon, the chief architect of our constitution and the pillar of the Namibian house,” Mbumba said. “At this moment of deepest sorrow, I appeal to the nation to remain calm and collected while the Government attends to all necessary state arrangements, preparations and other protocols.”
Born in a village in northern Namibia in 1941, Geingob was the southern African country’s first president outside of the Ovambo ethnic group, which makes up more than half the country’s population.
He took up activism against South Africa’s apartheid regime, which at the time administered Namibia, from his early schooling years before being driven into exile.
Namibia is to hold presidential and national assembly elections toward the end of the year.
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