Namibian President Geingob Laid to Rest

The late Namibian President Hage Geingob is buried at Heroes Acre, south of Windhoek.

Geingob, a veteran of the country's liberation struggle and its first post-independence prime minister, died in a hospital on February 4.

Tributes to the 82-year-old statesman poured in from African leaders who saw him as a hero of the anti-apartheid struggle.

Recently, Geingob supported South Africa's complaint against Israel under the Genocide Convention and condemned Namibia's former colonial ruler Germany for opposing the case. 

Serving his second term as president, he revealed last month that he was being treated for cancer.

Former vice-president Nangolo Mbumba was inaugurated as Geingob's successor as president, along with new vice-president Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah.

The pair will serve until presidential and national assembly elections towards the end of the year.

First elected president in 2014, Geingob was Namibia's longest-serving prime minister and third president.

In 2013, Geingob underwent brain surgery, and last year he had an aortic operation in neighboring South Africa. He had been receiving treatment at Lady Pohamba Hospital in Windhoek.

Last month, Geingob threw his weight behind South Africa's challenge against Israel's military campaign in Gaza, under the Genocide Convention in the UN's top court.

In particular he singled out for criticism Germany, Namibia's former colonial ruler and an outspoken critic of South Africa's case that argued Israel has breached the convention.

Born in a village in northern Namibia in 1941, Geingob was the southern African country's first president outside the Ovambo people, who make up more than half the population.

In his early years he took up activism against South Africa's apartheid regime, which at the time ruled Namibia.