Supporters of the Cameroonian People’s Democratic Movement (CPDM) hold the new campaign fabric bearing the image of Cameroonian President and presidential candidate Paul Biya.
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JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — After a newspaper reported in 1897 the death of the great American writer Mark Twain, a perplexed – but very much alive – Twain joked: “The report of my death was an exaggeration.”
This century, several aging African leaders have also had to reject premature reports of their deaths, such as Cameroon’s Paul Biya last year when rumors about his disappearance went viral on social media after being unnoticed in public for a month.
It turned out that the 92-year-old, who has the distinction of being the world’s oldest non-royal ruler, was simply residing at his second home in Switzerland.
Outgoing Cameroonian President Paul Biya flanked by his wife, Cameroonian First Lady Chantal Biya (right), addresses an election rally in Maroua on October 7, 2025.
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This Sunday, he is looking for a eighth term – after ruling Cameroon for 43 years – which experts say he is virtually guaranteed to win given his biggest rival has not been allowed to run. His country faces problems such as jihadist violence, a separatist movement and systemic corruption.
Biya is far from being an isolated example in Africa which, despite being the continent with the youngest population in the world, has many gerontocracies.
“It’s an irony for a continent whose median age is just 19,” says Africa analyst Paul Nantulya. He says that “third-termism,” as he calls attempts by some African leaders to cling to power, “is a disease.”
NPR looks at other of Africa’s longest-serving leaders.
Malawi’s new President Peter Mutharika delivers his inaugural address during his swearing-in and inauguration ceremony at Kamuzu Stadium in Blantyre on October 4, 2025.
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Peter Mutharika, Malawi, 85 years old
Gone are the old people and make way for the… older ones. This is how the small southern African democracy of Malawi voted last month when they elected their former president, Peter Mutharika, 85, over incumbent Lazarus Chakwera, 70.
Malawians were fed up with rising costs and severe fuel shortages.
Alassane Uustabar, Ivory Coast, 83 years old
Ouattara, former economist at the International Monetary Fund, introduces himself October 25 for a fourth term. In 2020, he said he would not run again, as the constitution prevented leaders from running for more than two terms. Despite this promise, Ouattara later amended the constitution to allow himself to run again, sparking violent protests.
Ivory Coast, a former French colony and the world’s largest cocoa producer, is still recovering from a brutal civil war in the early 2000s.
Protests continued this month in the run-up to the elections, after two opposition leaders were prohibited from contesting the vote.
Teodoro Biang Nguema, Equatorial Guinea,
After Cameroonian Biya, who was only a few months ahead of him, the longest-serving leader in Africa is Obiang. At 83, he has also led his country for 43 years.
The petro-state on Africa’s west coast has had only two presidents since its independence from Spain in the 1960s. The first was Obiang’s own uncle, whom he overthrew in a 1979 coup.
Nguema, Desert, Equatorial Guinea, 1979
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The country is effectively a one-party state, and international observers have long said elections are flawed, with Obiang typically receiving more than 90 percent of the vote. In an electoral district in 2002, he even won 103 percent of the ballot.
Equatorial Guinea also has a shocking human rights record and a dire state of press freedom. Despite the country’s immense oil wealth, little has trickled down to ordinary citizens, while Obiang is a fan of mansions, superyachts and luxury cars.
The Trump administration recently approved a lifting of sanctions against Obiang to allow him to travel to New York for the United Nations General Assembly. He met with US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau and the two agreed to expand ties.
Emmer Mnango, Zimbabwe, 83 years old
Born just months after Obiang, Mnangagwa became president of the southern African country after deposing his geriatric predecessor, Robert Mugabe, in a 2017 coup. At the time, Mugabe was 93 and held the title of the world’s oldest leader.
Zimbabweans hoped that Mnangagwa, 18 years Mugabe’s junior, would deliver free and fair elections, repair the country’s broken economy and end corruption. Eight years later, many Zimbabweans are saying things are worse under the man they nicknamed “the crocodile”.
The rise of Generation Z
But there are growing signs that time may be up for Africa’s aging leaders. Young Africans are fed up with the status quo, and so-called “Generation Z” protests have erupted this year in countries including Kenya, Togo, Madagascar and Morocco.
And some young leaders are on the rise. The interim president of Burkina Faso, Ibrahim Traoré, is one of the youngest in the world. Although he came to power in a coup in 2022, he is incredibly popular with the country’s youth. Then, in Uganda, next year’s elections will see popstar-turned-politician Bobi Wine, 43, take on longtime President Yoweri Museveni, 81, who is seeking a seventh term.
Of course, Africa is not alone in having officially aging leaders. Iranian Supreme Leader Seyyed Ali Hosseini Khamenei is 86 years old, King Salman of Saudi Arabia is 89 years old and the last two US presidents, Joe Biden and Donald Trump, are 82 and 79 years old respectively.
