Namibia’s founding president dies at 95

Sam Nujoma led the country’s 24-year-long war for independence from South African rule between 1966 and 1989

Sam Nujoma, a guerrilla leader who became the first president of Namibia after it gained independence in 1990, has died at the age of 95, the leader of the African nation has announced.

Nujoma passed away in a hospital in country’s capital Windhoek on Friday, Namibian President Nangolo Mbumba said in a post on X early Saturday morning. During the past three weeks, the iconic politician had been fighting an illness, from which he “could not recover,” he wrote.

“It is therefore with utmost sorrow and sadness that I announce… to the Namibian people, our African brothers and sisters and the world at large, about the passing of our revered freedom fighter and revolutionary leader, H.E. Dr. Sam Shafiishuna Nujoma,” Mbumba said.

The president announced a period of national mourning for Nujoma, who, he said, “lived a long and consequential life during which he exceptionally served the people of his beloved country.”