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Sit Tight Syndrome: Africa’s 10 Longest Tenured Dictators (PICTURED)

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Of the world’s 30 longest-serving leaders – some would call them dictators – 14 are in Africa. Can you guess which ones make the top-10 list?

Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo
Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo

1. Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, Equatorial Guinea, 33 years, 3 months

Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo has been ruling the tiny, oil-rich West African nation since overthrowing his uncle Marcias in August, 1979, in a bloody palace coup. And While Equatorial Guinea has one of the world’s highest per capita incomes, it ranks quite poorly on the U.N. Human Development Index with the majority of the population lacking basic necessities like clean drinking water.

President of Angola Jose Eduardo dos Santos speaks during a press conference at the presidential palace in Luanda, Angola, 13 July 2011. German Chancellor Angela Merkel (not pictured) met with Angolan leaders on 13 July on the second stage of her three-nation tour of Africa and expressed Berlin's readiness to help Angola in the defence sector. Merkel was welcomed with military honours by President Jose dos Santos at the presidential palace, becoming the first German government leader to visit Angola since it gained its independence from Portugal in 1975.  (Photo Credit: EPA/MICHAEL KAPPELER)
President of Angola Jose Eduardo dos Santos speaks during a press conference at the presidential palace in Luanda, Angola, 13 July 2011. German Chancellor Angela Merkel (not pictured) met with Angolan leaders on 13 July on the second stage of her three-nation tour of Africa and expressed Berlin’s readiness to help Angola in the defence sector. Merkel was welcomed with military honours by President Jose dos Santos at the presidential palace, becoming the first German government leader to visit Angola since it gained its independence from Portugal in 1975. (Photo Credit: EPA/MICHAEL KAPPELER)

2. Jose Eduardo Dos Santos, Angola, 33 years, 2 months

Seizing power after the natural death of his predecessor, Jose Eduardo Dos Santos lags just one month behind Obiang, and he comes with an equally unsavory human rights record. According the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), for instance, Angola is sub-Saharan Africa’s second-largest oil producer and the seventh-largest supplier to the U.S.. The country is also the world’s fourth-largest producer of rough diamonds. Yet despite these plentiful resources, the people of Angola not directly related to the president remain desperately poor with 68 percent of the population living below the poverty line and life expectancy topping out at 41 years.

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe addresses on February 28, 2009 his guests during his birthday party held in Chinhoyi 115 km from Harare, Zimbabwe. President Mugabe turned 85 on the 21st of February. (Photo Credit: AFP PHOTO/Desmond Kwande)
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe addresses on February 28, 2009 his guests during his birthday party held in Chinhoyi 115 km from Harare, Zimbabwe. President Mugabe turned 85 on the 21st of February. (Photo Credit: AFP PHOTO/Desmond Kwande)

3. Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe, 33 years, 7 months

Mugabe has been running Zimbabwe since the country gained independence in 1980 – first as prime minister and then from 1987 as president. Despite his age -nearly 90 – Mugabe has vowed he will not step down from his post.

President Paul Biya
President Paul Biya

4. Paul Biya, Cameroon, 31 years

Cameroon’s president took over from President Ahmadou Ahidjo in November 1982 and has been in power of the oil-rich nation in Central Africa ever since.

Denis Sassou Nguesso
Denis Sassou Nguesso

5. Denis Sassou Nguesso, Republic of the Congo, 29 years, 9 months

If he hadn’t lost control of the Congo for five years in 1992, Sassou Nguesso would be at the very top of this list. He first seized power of the country in a February 1979 coup, but lost the country’s first multi-party elections in 1992. After a 1997 civil war, however, he was back in control and was re-elected in 2004 for another seven-year term.

King of Swaziland Mswati iii (front) and his wife disembark a plane after arriving at Katunayake International airport in Colombo August 13, 2012. (Photo Credit: REUTERS/Stringer)
King of Swaziland Mswati III (front) and his wife disembark a plane after arriving at Katunayake International airport in Colombo August 13, 2012. (Photo Credit: REUTERS/Stringer)

6. King Mswati III, Swaziland, 28 years, 7 months

Sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch has been ruling his landlocked country since he was crowed in April 1986 at the age of 18 – a. At the time he was the world’s youngest ruling monarch.

Ugandan President, Yoweri Museveni speaks during the London Summit on Family Planning organized by the UK Government and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation with the United Nations Population Fund, UNFPA, in central London Wednesday July 11, 2012. (Photo Credit: AP/Carl Court, Pool)
Ugandan President, Yoweri Museveni speaks during the London Summit on Family Planning organized by the UK Government and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation with the United Nations Population Fund, UNFPA, in central London Wednesday July 11, 2012. (Photo Credit: AP/Carl Court, Pool)

7. Yoweri Museveni, Uganda, 27 years, 11 months

Yoweri Museveni seized Kampala in January 1986 following a five-year guerrilla war and declared himself Uganda’s president. Shortly after taking power he banned multiparty politics, although he re-introduced the system again in 1996. Not that it particularly mattered, as Museveni won a fourth term in office in 2011 despite third-time opponent Kizza Besigye’s cries of foul play.

FRANCE - STRASBOURG - 16 NOVEMBER 2008 - European Development Days 2008 - Food crisis : what are the answers? - Blaise Compaore , President of Burkina Faso
FRANCE – STRASBOURG – 16 NOVEMBER 2008 – European Development Days 2008 – Food crisis : what are the answers? – Blaise Compaore , President of Burkina Faso

8. Blaise Compaoré, Burkina Faso, 26 years, 1 month

Blaise Campaore has been running Burkina Faso since deposing predecessor Thomas Sankara in an October 1987 coup. Since then he has been winning “landslide victories” (contested by the opposition) in the presidential polls – taking 80 percent of the vote in 2010. And although a law in Burkino Faso was passed in 2005 prohibiting presidents from serving more than two terms, Campoare doesn’t have to abide by it as his country’s constitutional court ruled it could not be applied retroactively.

 

Omar Hassan al-Bashir
Omar Hassan al-Bashir

9. Omar Hassan al-Bashir, Sudan, 24 years, 5 months

In June 1989, Al-Bashir overthrew the democratically elected civilian government and appointed himself president in a bloodless coup. Since he took office his country has been in a state of civil war with more than 1 million reported dead. In March 2009, the International Criminal Court in the Hague issued an arrest warrant for Al-Bashir – a first for a sitting head of state – for instigating crimes against humanity.

Idriss Déby Itno The Trent
Idriss Deby Itno

 

10. Idriss Déby Itno, Chad, 22 years 11 months

Déby seized control of Chad during a rebellion against then-President Hissène Habré in December 1990 and has since managed to survive a number of attempts to overthrow him.

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