supported<\/a> South Africa\u2019s complaint against Israel under the Genocide Convention and condemned Namibia\u2019s former colonial ruler Germany for opposing the case.<\/p>\nServing his second term as president, he revealed last month that he was being treated for cancer.<\/p>\n
Former vice president Nangolo Mbumba was inaugurated as Geingob\u2019s successor as president on Sunday, along with new Vice President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah.<\/p>\n
The pair will serve until presidential and national assembly elections towards the end of the year.<\/p>\n
Earlier, Mbumba had announced the death, saying \u201cour beloved Dr Hage G. Geingob, the president of the Republic of Namibia, has passed on today.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAt his side, was his dear wife Madame Monica Geingos and his children.\u201d<\/p>\n
This triggered an outpouring of tributes from around the continent, including from leaders who worked alongside him in the struggle to free southern Africa from apartheid rule.<\/p>\n
Pakistan also conveyed its condolences and sorrow over the passing of the Namibian president.<\/p>\n
\u201cPresident Geingob was a visionary statesman, a leading icon of the liberation struggle of Namibia and the chief architect of the Constitution of Namibia,\u201d the Foreign Office said in a statement.<\/p>\n
It added that Geingob would always be remembered for his services to the Namibian nation and his legacy as a leader of the Global South.<\/p>\n
President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa said: \u201cToday, South Africa joins the people of our sister state Namibia in mourning the passing of a leader, patriot and friend.<\/p>\n
\u201cPresident Geingob was a towering veteran of Namibia\u2019s liberation from colonialism and apartheid,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was also greatly influential in the solidarity that the people of Namibia extended to the people of South Africa so that we could be free today.\u201d<\/p>\n
President William Ruto of Kenya, and several more African leaders, echoed this praise.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was a believer of a unified Africa and strongly promoted the continent\u2019s voice and visibility at the global arena,\u201d Ruto said.<\/p>\n
World Health Organisation director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus hailed Geingob\u2019s work to improve healthcare for Namibians, dubbing him a \u201cvisionary leader\u201d.<\/p>\n
And Moussa Faki Mahamat, chair of the African Union commission, lamented: \u201cA baobab has fallen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Beyond Africa, Russian President Vladimir Putin said he would \u201cforever fondly remember this wonderful man\u201d.<\/p>\n
First elected president in 2014, Geingob was Namibia\u2019s longest-serving prime minister and third president.<\/p>\n
In 2013, Geingob underwent brain surgery, and last year he had an aortic operation in neighbouring South Africa. He had been receiving treatment at Lady Pohamba Hospital in Windhoek.<\/p>\n
Last month, Geingob threw his weight behind South Africa\u2019s challenge against Israel\u2019s military campaign in Gaza, under the Genocide Convention in the UN\u2019s top court.<\/p>\n
In particular he singled out for criticism Germany, Namibia\u2019s former colonial ruler and an outspoken critic of South Africa\u2019s case alleging Israel has breached the convention.<\/p>\n
Lamenting \u201cGermany\u2019s inability to draw lessons from its horrific history\u201d, the Namibian leader accused Berlin of defending \u201cgenocidal and gruesome acts\u201d.<\/p>\n
Germany massacred more than 70,000 Indigenous Herero and Nama people in Namibia between 1904 and 1908, in what many historians consider the first genocide of the 20th century.<\/p>\n
In May 2021, after more than five years of negotiations, Germany recognised committing genocide in the territory it had colonised from 1884 to 1915.<\/p>\n
Reacting to Geingob\u2019s death, Germany\u2019s Scholz did not refer to the Israel controversy, but thanked the Namibian leader for his help in bringing Germany to terms with its own actions.<\/p>\n
\u201cPresident Geingob was one of Namibia\u2019s founding fathers and rendered great services to the country\u2019s democratic development,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cGermany is losing a partner who was committed to the process of coming to terms with Germany\u2019s colonial history with great openness.\u201d<\/p>\n
Born in a village in northern Namibia in 1941, Geingob was the southern African country\u2019s first president outside the Ovambo people, who make up more than half the population.<\/p>\n
In his early years he took up activism against South Africa\u2019s apartheid regime, which at the time ruled Namibia.<\/p>\n
In 1964 he was appointed representative for the SWAPO liberation movement at the United Nations.<\/p>\n
He spent almost three decades in Botswana and the United States, returning to Namibia in 1989 to lead SWAPO\u2019s election campaign in his now independent homeland.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Namibia\u2019s President Hage Geingob, a veteran of the country\u2019s liberation struggle and its first post-independence prime minister, died on Sunday. Tributes to the 82-year-old statesman poured in from African leaders who saw him as a hero of the anti-apartheid struggle. And Germany\u2019s Chancellor Olaf Scholz expressed regret that his country had lost \u201ca partner who […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":56271,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.dawn.com\/large\/2024\/02\/042115281a39d50.png?r=212636","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-56270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pakistan"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t