Supporters of the Cameroon Individuals’s Democratic Motion (CPDM) maintain the brand new marketing campaign material bearing the picture of Cameroon’s President and presidential candidate Paul Biya.
AFP through Getty Photographs/AFP
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AFP through Getty Photographs/AFP
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — After a newspaper reported in 1897 that the good American author Mark Twain had died, a bemused — however very a lot alive — Twain famously quipped: “the report of my death was an exaggeration.”
This century, a number of growing old African leaders have additionally needed to reject untimely studies of their deaths, like Cameroon’s Paul Biya final 12 months when rumours of his demise unfold on social media after he wasn’t seen in public for a month.
It turned out the 92-year-old, who has the excellence of being the world’s oldest, non-royal, chief, was merely in residence at his second residence in Switzerland.
Cameroon incumbent President Paul Biya flanked by his spouse, Cameroon First Woman Chantal Biya (R), addresses a marketing campaign rally in Maroua on October 7, 2025.
ROBERT FIMBAYE/AFP/through Getty
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ROBERT FIMBAYE/AFP/through Getty
This Sunday he is in search of an eighth time period in workplace –- having dominated Cameroon for 43 years — that consultants say he is all however assured to win provided that his strongest rival was barred from working. His nation is beset with points together with jihadist violence, a separatist motion, and systemic corruption.
Biya is way from an remoted instance in Africa, which regardless of being the continent with the world’s youngest inhabitants, boasts quite a few gerontocracies.
“It is an irony for a continent whose median age is just 19,” says Africa analyst Paul Nantulya. He says “third-termism” as he dubs some African leaders’ makes an attempt to cling to energy, “is a disease.”
NPR seems to be at some extra of Africa’s oldest leaders.
Malawi’s newly sworn-in President Peter Mutharika makes his inaugural speech throughout his swearing-in and inauguration ceremony at Kamuzu Stadium in Blantyre, on October 4, 2025.
AMOS GUMULIRA/AFP through Getty pictures
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AMOS GUMULIRA/AFP through Getty pictures
Peter Mutharika, Malawi, 85
Out with the outdated and in with the…older. That is how the small southern African democracy of Malawi voted final month after they elected their former president, 85-year-old Peter Mutharika, over incumbent Lazarus Chakwera, aged 70.
Malawians have been fed up with rising prices and extreme gas shortages.
Alassane Ouattara, Ivory Coast, 83
Ouattara, a former economist for the Worldwide Financial Fund, is working on October 25 for a fourth time period. In 2020 he mentioned he would not run once more, because the structure prevented leaders from working for greater than two phrases. Regardless of that promise, Ouattara later modified the structure to permit himself to run once more, sparking violent protests.
Ivory Coast, a former French colony and the world’s high cocoa producer, continues to be recovering from a brutal civil struggle within the early 2000s.
There have been protests once more this month within the run-up to the polls, after two opposition leaders have been barred from contesting the vote.
Teodoro Obiang Nguema, Equatorial Guinea, 83
After Cameroon’s Biya, who beats him by only some months, the longest-ruling chief in Africa is Obiang. At 83 he has additionally dominated his nation for 43 years.
The petrostate on Africa’s West coast has solely had two presidents since independence from Spain within the Nineteen Sixties. The primary was Obiang’s personal uncle, who he overthrew in a coup in 1979.
Portrait of President Teodoro Obiang Nguema, Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, 1979
Gianni Ferrari/Getty Photographs
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Gianni Ferrari/Getty Photographs
The nation is successfully a one-party state and worldwide observers have lengthy mentioned elections are flawed with Obiang often taking 90-plus % of the vote. In a single voting district in 2002, he even gained 103 % of the poll.
Equatorial Guinea additionally has a surprising human rights document and dire state of press freedom. Regardless of the nation’s huge oil wealth, little has trickled all the way down to extraordinary residents whereas Obiang is a fan of mansions, superyachts and luxurious vehicles.
The Trump administration not too long ago accepted a waiver of sanctions towards Obiang to permit him to journey to New York for the UN Basic Meeting. He met with U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau and the 2 agreed to develop ties.
Emmerson Mnangagwa, Zimbabwe, 83
Born only a few months after Obiang, Mnangagwa grew to become president of the Southern African nation after deposing his geriatric predecessor, Robert Mugabe, in a 2017 coup. On the time Mugabe was 93 and had the title of the world’s oldest chief.
Zimbabweans hoped Mnangagwa, 18 years Mugabe’s junior, would permit free and honest elections, repair the nation’s damaged economic system and finish corruption. Eight years later, many Zimbabweans say issues are worse underneath the person they dub “the crocodile.”
The rise of Gen Z
However there are rising indicators time could be up for Africa’s growing old leaders. Younger Africans are fed up with the established order, with so-called “Gen Z” protests erupting this 12 months in international locations like Kenya, Togo, Madagascar and Morocco.
And a few younger leaders are on the rise. Burkina Faso’s 37-year-old interim president Ibrahim Traoré is likely one of the youngest on this planet. Though he rose to energy in a 2022 coup, he is extremely widespread with the nation’s youth. Then in Uganda, elections subsequent 12 months will see popstar-turned-politician Bobi Wine, 43, tackle longtime President Yoweri Museveni, 81 – who’s in search of a seventh time period in workplace.
In fact, it isn’t solely Africa that has formally growing old leaders. Iran’s supreme chief Seyyed Ali Hosseini Khamenei is 86, King Salman of Saudi Arabia is 89, and the final two US presidents, Joe Biden and Donald Trump are 82 and 79 respectively.
