10 African Presidents Who Died In Office & The Causes Of Their Death

There have been a very large number of African Leaders who have died in office

We had a total of 11 African leaders who died on duty alone between 2008 and 2014. 

Before their deaths, they had all suffered from unexplained illnesses

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1. Lansana Conté

Lansana Conté, who served from 3 April 1984 until his death in December 2008, was the second President of Guinea. He was a Muslim and was a member of the ethnic community of Susu. Lansana Conte, Guinea’s President, died after a long illness and a 24-year reign. The death of the chain-smoking general came to his people as a shock..

9. Joao Barnado Viera

From 1980 to 1984, João Bernardo “Nino” Vieira was President of Guinea-Bissau, from 1984 to 1999 for the second time, and from 2005 to 2009 for the third time. Vieira governed for 19 years after taking power in 1980, and he won a multiparty presidential election in 1994. On 2 March 2009, Vieira was killed by troops, apparently in revenge for a bomb blast that killed General Batista Tagme Na Waie, the military leader of Guinea-Bissau. These claims were officially refuted by the military after Army officials assumed responsibility for Vieira’s death.

8. Omar Bongo Ondimba

El Hadj Omar Bongo Ondimba was a Gabonese politician who, from 1967 until his death in 2009, was the President of Gabon for 42 years. In the 1960s, under Gabon’s first President, Léon M’ba, Omar Bongo was appointed to key positions as a young official, before being elected Vice-President in his own right in 1966. Gabon’s second President, Omar Bongo, died in Spain after suffering from colorectal cancer on June 8, 2009. A month of mourning and a state funeral followed, from 11 to 18 June. After the death of Bongo, his coffin was flown to Libreville from Barcelona on June 11.

7. Umaru Musa Yar’Adua

The 13th president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria was Umaru Musa Yar’Adua. From 29 May 1999 to 28 May 2007, he was governor of Katsina State in northern Nigeria. On 21 April 2007, he was declared the winner of the disputed Nigerian presidential election and was sworn in on 29 May 2007. Yar’Adua left for Saudi Arabia in 2009 to undergo pericarditis care. On 24 February 2010, he returned to Nigeria, where he died on 5 May.

6. Muammar Gaddafi

Muammar Mohammed Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi was a Libyan revolutionary, politician, and political theorist, widely known as Colonel Gaddafi. On 20 October 2011, during the Battle of Sirte, Muammar Gaddafi, the deposed leader of Libya, was captured and killed. Gaddafi was discovered hidden west of Sirte in a culvert and arrested by the forces of the National Transitional Council. Shortly afterward, he was murdered.

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5. Malam Bacai Sanhá

Malam Bacai Sanhá was a politician from Guinea-Bissau who, from 8 September 2009 to 9 January 2012, was President of Guinea-Bissau. Malam Bacai Sanha, the president of the West African country of Guinea-Bissau, died in a French hospital at the age of 64.

4. Bingu wa Mutharika

Bingu wa Mutharika was a Malawian politician and economist who, from May 2004 until his death in April 2012, was the President of Malawi. Mutharika died at the age of 78 on 5 April 2012. He suffered a heart attack and, due to power outages in Lilongwe, was reportedly flown to a South African hospital.

3. John Atta Mills

John Evans Fiifi Atta Mills, who served as President of Ghana from 2009 to 2012, was a Ghanaian politician and legal scholar. He was inaugurated on 7 January 2009, having defeated candidate Nana Akufo-Addo of the ruling party in the 2008 election. Mills died three days after his 68th birthday at the 37 Military Hospital in Accra on July 24, 2012. He had suffered from throat cancer, although the cause of death was not immediately announced, and had recently been to the US for medical reasons.

2. Meles Zenawi Asres

Meles Zenawi Asres was an Ethiopian politician who, from 1995 to his death in 2012, was Ethiopia’s 7th Prime Minister. He has been the chairman of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front since 1989, and the head of the Progressive Democratic People’s Front of Ethiopia since its establishment in 1991. After contracting an infection in Belgium, Meles Zenawi died. Bereket Simon, the Minister of Media, declared on state television that it was a sad day for Ethiopia. The man who, for the past 21 years, has led our country and brought about economic and political reforms, has died.

1. Michael Charles Chilufya Sata

From 23 September 2011 to his death on 28 October 2014, Michael Charles Chilufya Sata was a Zambian politician who was the fifth President of Zambia. A Social Democrat, he headed a major political party in Zambia, the Patriotic Front. At the age of 77, Michael Sata died after seeking treatment for an undisclosed disease.