Exit on duty: African leaders who have died in office in the last 20 years

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 subregion 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: