Namibia’s president, Hage Geingob, has passed away at the age of 82.
Geingob was Namibia’s longest serving prime minister and third president, first elected in 2014. He was serving his second term as president and revealed in January that he was receiving treatment for cancer.
Geingob was a vocal advocate for Namibia’s independence, representing the local liberation movement, Swapo, at the UN and across the Americas. He held various ministerial and internal party positions before becoming president in 2014. His first term was tainted by a recession, high unemployment, and graft allegations.
In 2019, documents published by WikiLeaks suggested that government officials took bribes from an Icelandic firm in exchange for continued access to Namibia’s fishing grounds. Geingob’s share of the vote dropped considerably in 2019 from 87%, but he comfortably secured victory with 56% of preferences.
He suffered a couple of health scares in his later years, including brain surgery in 2013 and heart valve surgery in South Africa in 2023.
