Namibia’s President succumbs to cancer, dies at 82

Namibia’s President Hage Geingob is dead.

He died on Sunday in a hospital in Windhoek at the age of 82.

Geingob was receiving treatment for cancer before his death.

“It is with utmost sadness and regret that I inform you that our beloved Dr. Hage Geingob, the President of Namibia has passed on today,” the presidential office said in a statement on X, posted by acting president Nangolo Mbumba.

He said Geingob had as of 2013 undergone brain surgery, and in 2023 underwent an aortic operation in South Africa, adding that until his passing, he received treatment at Lady Pohamba Hospital in Windhoek.

“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.”

He disclosed the Cabinet will convene to make the necessary state arrangements, adding Namibia lost a distinguished servant of the people, liberation struggle icon, chief architect of Namibia’s constitution and pillar of the Namibian house.

Geingob, born in a village in northern Namibia in 1941, was first elected president in 2014 and became Namibia’s longest serving prime minister and third president.

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 ruled over Namibia, from his early schooling years before being driven into exile.

He spent almost three decades in Botswana and the United States.