(L-R) Ethiopia's Zenawi, Ghana's John Mills, Libya's Gaddafi, Nigeria's Yar Adua, Gabon's Omar Bongo
Death is an inevitable part of life. The pain of loss differs depending on who dies. So when a sitting president dies, a nation is ordinarily united in grief, more often, the grief extends to the sub-region and the continent at large.
An expected exception is the case of anti-apartheid activist and global icon, Nelson Mandela, whose death united the world in grief.
World leaders descended on South Africa to pay their respects to the man South Africa still celebrates, Tata Madiba.
This article looks back to the instances of presidential deaths in Africa over the last two decades – i.e. between 1999 and today. In 1999, two African leaders died in the persons of Morocco's King Hassan III (pneumonia) and President Ibrahim Mainassara of Niger (assassinated).
The most recent death is of President John Joseph Pombe Magufuli, who died of heart complications at the age of 61 according to the official government statement. Reports are rife that he died of coronavirus - despite being a vociferous denier of the pandemic.
List of presidential / prime ministerial deaths between 1999 - 2021:
1999 – King Hassan II of Morocco died of pneumonia
1999 – President Ibrahim Mainassara of Niger was assassinated
2001 – Laurent Desire Kabila of DR Congo was assassinated
2002 – Muhammad Egal of Somaliland died from an undisclosed illness
2005 – Gnassingbe Eyadema of Togo died of a heart attack
2008 – Levy Mwananwasa of Zambia died of stroke
2008- Lansana Conte of Guinea died of diabetes and heart condition
2009 – Omar Bongo of Gabon died of cancer
2009 – Joao Vieira of Guinea-Bissau was assassinated
2010 – Umaru Musa Yar’Adua of Nigeria died from pericarditis
2011 – Muammar Gaddafi of Libya was killed
2012 – Malam Sanha of Guinea-Bissau died from diabetes
2012 – Bingu wa Mutharika of Malawi died from heart attack
2012 – John Atta Mills of Ghana died of throat cancer and stroke
2012 – Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia (PM) died from an undisclosed illness
2014 – Michael Sata of Zambia died from an undisclosed illness
2020 – Pierre Nkurunziza of Burundi died from heart attack
2020 - Prime Minister Amadou Gon Coulibaly of Ivory Coast died of heart attack
2021 - Prime Minister Hamed Bakayoko of Ivory Coast died of cancer
2021 – President John Pombe Magufuli died of heart complications
See the list of deaths as presented in a BBC infographic:
