The African president who dïed inside a plane after ruling for 38 years

Born on 26 December, 1935, Gnasingbe Eyadema was a Togolese military officer and politician who was the president of Togo for 38 years.

Eyadéma participated in two successful military cøup, in January 1963 and January 1967, and became president on 14 April 1967. As president, he created a political party, the Rally of the Togolese People (RPT), and headed an anti-communist single-party regime until the early 1990s, when reforms leading to multiparty elections began.

Although his rule was seriously challenged by various events in the early 1990s, he ultimately consolidated power again and won presidential elections in 1993, 1998 and 2003; the opposition bøycotted the 1993 election and denounced the 1998 and 2003 election results as fraudulent. At the time of his dēath, Eyadéma was the longest-serving ruler in Africa.

Zakari Nandja, chief of the Togolese army, pronounced Eyadéma’s son Faure Gnassingbé as the new president of Togo immediately. Alpha Oumar Konaré, president of the Commission of the African Union, immediately declared this act to be a military cøup d’état and against the constitution. ECOWAS also did not approve the designation of Faure Gnassingbé as president.

Under heavy pressure from ECOWAS and the international community, Faure Gnassingbé stepped down later and was replaced by Bonfoh Abass, the first deputy parliament speaker, until after the presidential elections on 24 April 2005, when Faure Gnassingbé was elected president with 60% of the vote.