Former Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, buried Sunday, following his death in Spain last month has joined a growing list of African leaders who died in Europe and Asia seeking medical help.
Dos Santos was one of Africa’s longest serving leaders after clocking 38 years in power. Critics of African leaders say they are not investing enough in healthcare.
The former Angolan leader, who died at a clinic in Barcelona, Spain, joins a list that includes another long-serving African ruler, Robert Mugabe, who died at Gleneagles Hospital in Singapore in 2017 after 37 years in power. The late Mugabe, who had cancer, frequently charted private planes to Singapore for decades to seek medical attention.
Zimbabwe’s neighbor to the north, Zambia, remains top on the list of countries with leaders who died in other nations. President Michael Sata died at London's King Edward VII Hospital in Britain in 2014. Another Zambia leader, Levy Mwanawasa, who collapsed following a stroke at an African Union Conference in Egypt, died at Percy Military Hospital near Paris, France, in 2008.
After two decades in power, Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi also died in Brussels, Belgium, from an undisclosed illness.
In Nigeria, President Umaru Ya’Adua died in 2010 while being treated in Saudi Arabia. Another West African leader, who died abroad, is Guinea-Bissau president, Malam Bacai Sanhá. He died in 2012 at the Val de Grace Military Hospital in France
Abuja Declaration.
African Union member states signed the so-called Abuja Declaration on 27 April 2001, pledging to allocate 15% of their annual national budgets to improving healthcare systems. However, former Zimbabwean health minister, Henry Madzorera, told VOA Zimbabwe Service that there is no political will to fulfil the pledge.
“That declaration is just on paper, they do not believe in it, in their own hearts it’s just a piece of rubbish.”
Madzorera added that "all that we see happening is corruption, stealing of Covid (19) funds … Even the budgetary allocation, which is supposed to be 15% minimal, they are not ashamed that the allocation they give to the ministries of health is often less than 10% when in fact they signed for 15%. So, we have leaders who are shameless who do not care about the truth, who do not care about integrity.”
He said, “The problem with our leaders is that they have no heart for Africa. They have no heart for their nations. They consider that they are in positions, so that they and their immediate families are well fed, they can be well-taken care of. They do not develop our own health industry…There are no medicines and they do not care... because they know if they cough they go to Singapore to seek treatment. We need a new generation of leaders who know how to develop their own countries and be proud of their own countries.”