Namibian President Hage Geingob has reportedly died in a hospital in Windhoek, according to a statement from the presidential office.
Geingob died on Sunday, aged 82.
The late president, who was serving his second term as president, said last month that he was being treated for cancer.
“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 away today.
“At his side were his dear wife, Madame Monica Geingos, and his children,” read the statement on X, formerly Twitter, signed by acting president Nangolo Mbumba.
A biopsy after a normal medical check-up in January discovered “cancerous cells,” his office stated at the time.
Geingob was Namibia’s longest-serving prime minister and third president, having been elected in 2014.
A biopsy after a normal medical check-up in January discovered “cancerous cells,” Geingob’s office stated at the time.
Until his demise, he was Namibia’s longest-serving prime minister and third president, having been elected in 2014.
He said that the Cabinet would meet promptly to make the required state arrangements.
Geingob, born in a settlement in northern Namibia in 1941, was the southern African country’s first president who was not from the Ovambo ethnic group, which accounts for more than half of the population.
He began his activism against South Africa’s apartheid state, which ruled Namibia at the time, when he was in elementary school, before being forced into exile.
He spent over three decades in Botswana before moving to the United States in 1964.
Namibia plans to hold presidential and national parliament elections towards the end of the year.
