Togo President Eyadema dies
2005-02-05 22:30
Lome - Africa's longest-serving ruler, Togo President Gnassingbe Eyadema, died on Saturday at the age of 69, the government said in a statement.
"Togo has been struck by great misfortune. It is a national catastrophe. The president is no longer with us," said the government statement.
The official statement said Eyadema died on Saturday morning while he was being evacuated abroad for urgent medical treatment.
Authorities immediately sealed off all the country's borders in the wake of the president's death, officials said.
The Togolese people "must avoid to sink again into chaos, division and anarchy," the statement added. "The government, the armed and security forces, will ensure that order, security and peace reign throughout the national territory."
Eyadema has ruled the tiny former French west African colony since 1967, when he rose to power in a military coup.
The longest-serving leader in Africa, Eyadema has governed unchallenged for more than two decades and was then elected three times in multi-party polls, the last in 2003 after amending the constitution.
Eyadema, born to a peasant family in northern Togo, helped to bring down post-independence president, Sylvanus Olympio, in 1963 before launching his own coup d'etat four years later against Nicolas Grunitsky.
A general who rose through the ranks of the French colonial army with stints in Benin, Indochina, Algeria and Niger, he was awarded the Legion d'honneur, France's highest honour.