The President of Namibia, Hage Geingob, died on Sunday morning in a hospital in the country’s capital, Windhoek, AFP, Reuters and DPA reported.

Hage Geingob, 82, was being treated at Lady Pohamba Private Hospital in Windhoek after his medical team recently discovered he had cancer following a biopsy.

This was announced by Vice President Nangolo Mbumba, who became the interim president.

“The nation of Namibia has lost an outstanding public servant, the architect of our Constitution and the pillar of our Namibian home. At this moment of deep sorrow, I call on the nation to remain calm and united,” Mbumba said.

On February 1, the presidential administration announced that Geingob had returned from the United States, where he received “innovative treatment against cancer cells.”

Hage Geingob was the third president of Namibia – an African country that declared its independence in 1990 – and had been in office since 2015. He underwent brain surgery in 2013 and last year he underwent aortic surgery in South Africa, a neighboring country. Namibia.

Born in northern Namibia in 1941, Hage Gottfried Geingob became active as a young man demanding an end to the apartheid regime in South Africa, which also ruled Namibia at the time.

In exile, which lasted 30 years, he pleaded for Namibian independence and represented the local liberation movement SWAPO, now the ruling party in Windhoek, at the UN. In 1989, Geingob returned to Namibia, a year before the country gained independence. (Source: Agerpres)