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.”
Nujoma was born in 1929 to poor farmers from the Ovambo tribe, the eldest of ten children in the family.
Between 1966 and 1989, the exiled politician directed a guerrilla war against apartheid-era South Africa, which used to rule Namibia.
He played a key role in talks with the major foreign powers that produced UN Security Council Resolution 435, which set out a plan for a free and fair election in Namibia.
Nujoma returned to his home country in 1989 after a US-brokered deal had been reached to secure South Africa’s withdrawal from Namibia in exchange for a pullout of 50,000 Cuban troops from neighboring Angola.
Namibia gained its independence the next year, with Nujoma becoming its first president and serving three consecutive terms in office between 1990 and 2005.
One of his well-known quotes was: “A people united, striving to achieve a common good for all the members of the society, will always emerge victorious.”
