Namibia’s president, Hage Geingob is dead after reportedly succumbing to Cancer in the capital, Windhoek.
The acting presidentthe acting president, Nangolo Mbumba announced the death of 82- year- old Namibia’s longest serving prime minister and third president.
“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,” said a statement on Sunday from the acting president, Nangolo Mbumba.
Geingob, who was serving his second term as president, revealed in January that he was receiving treatment for cancer.
In 2013, Geingob underwent brain surgery, and in 2023 he underwent an aortic operation in neighbouring South Africa.
Up until his death, he had been receiving treatment at Lady Pohamba hospital in Windhoek.
Born in a village in northern Namibia in 1941, Geingob was its first president outside the Ovambo ethnic group, which makes up more than half of 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 US, leaving the former for the latter in 1964.
While in the US, he remained a vocal advocate for Namibia’s independence, representing the local liberation movement, Swapo, now the ruling party, at the UN and across the Americas.
When Swapo won the first elections in 1990, Geingob was appointed prime minister – a position he held for 12 years before returning to it again in 2012.
In 2014, as the party comfortably won yet another vote, riding on the legacy of its role in the liberation struggle, Geingob became president.
