African presidents who died in office: Atta Mills, Gaddafi, Bongo et al.

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.

Ghana on July 24, 2022 marked 10th anniversary of the passing of the death of John Evans Atta Mills, the first president to die in office.

This article looks back to the instances of presidential deaths in Africa over the last two decades – i.e. between 1999 and today.

Some were assassinated and others died of known conditions.

List of presidential / prime ministerial deaths between 1999 – 2021:

2021 – Idris Deby Itno killed in frontline of fight against terrorists

2021 – President John Pombe Magufuli died of heart complications

2020 – Pierre Nkurunziza of Burundi died from heart attack

2014 – Michael Sata of Zambia died from an undisclosed illness

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

2005 – Gnassingbe Eyadema of Togo died of a heart attack

2002 – Muhammad Egal of Somaliland died from an undisclosed illness

2001 – Laurent Desire Kabila of DR Congo was assassinated

1999 – King Hassan II of Morocco died of pneumonia

1999 – President Ibrahim Mainassara of Niger was assassinated

See the list of deaths as presented in a BBC infographic: