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| Yoweri Museveni and Other African ‘Presidents for Life’ | Yoweri Museveni and Other African ‘Presidents for Life’ |
| (about 7 hours later) | |
| Yoweri Museveni was sworn in for a fifth term as Uganda’s president on Thursday. In power since 1986, he was re-elected in February after a campaign season marred by the detention of his principal opponent, voting irregularities and legal challenges. His rule has been likened to a “dictatorship light”; he insists this term will be his last. | Yoweri Museveni was sworn in for a fifth term as Uganda’s president on Thursday. In power since 1986, he was re-elected in February after a campaign season marred by the detention of his principal opponent, voting irregularities and legal challenges. His rule has been likened to a “dictatorship light”; he insists this term will be his last. |
| President Obama told leaders of the African Union in July that, “Nobody should be president for life.” | President Obama told leaders of the African Union in July that, “Nobody should be president for life.” |
| “Your country is better off if you have new blood and new ideas,” Mr. Obama said. “I’m still a pretty young man, but I know that somebody with new energy and new insights will be good for my country. It will be good for yours, too, in some cases.” | “Your country is better off if you have new blood and new ideas,” Mr. Obama said. “I’m still a pretty young man, but I know that somebody with new energy and new insights will be good for my country. It will be good for yours, too, in some cases.” |
| His advice has not been universally heeded. If anything, the situation in some countries has gotten worse. These are some of the leaders who have been accused of either jettisoning or disregarding term limits, making politics in their countries particularly precarious. | His advice has not been universally heeded. If anything, the situation in some countries has gotten worse. These are some of the leaders who have been accused of either jettisoning or disregarding term limits, making politics in their countries particularly precarious. |
| Mr. Mugabe has led his country, formerly Rhodesia, since its emergence from white rule in 1980, and is perhaps the leader-for-life par excellence. After a disputed 2008 election, intimidation and harassment against Mr. Mugabe’s opponents was so severe that thousands of people fled to neighboring South Africa. He struck a conciliatory tone after winning the last election, in 2013, over his chief rival, Morgan Tsvangirai, but the country’s politics and economy remain troubled. | Mr. Mugabe has led his country, formerly Rhodesia, since its emergence from white rule in 1980, and is perhaps the leader-for-life par excellence. After a disputed 2008 election, intimidation and harassment against Mr. Mugabe’s opponents was so severe that thousands of people fled to neighboring South Africa. He struck a conciliatory tone after winning the last election, in 2013, over his chief rival, Morgan Tsvangirai, but the country’s politics and economy remain troubled. |
| At 92, Mr. Mugabe is the world’s oldest serving head of state. Discussions over succession plans have intensified recently. No one expects Mr. Mugabe to retire; the main questions are whether his party, ZANU-PF, can remain in charge after his death or will splinter, and what the security forces will do. _____ | |
| The Cold War was still raging when Mr. Biya became prime minister of Cameroon in 1975, and then president in 1982. Mr. Biya won a sixth term in 2011 — after having term limits removed from the Constitution. | The Cold War was still raging when Mr. Biya became prime minister of Cameroon in 1975, and then president in 1982. Mr. Biya won a sixth term in 2011 — after having term limits removed from the Constitution. |
| Cameroon faces a major threat from the Islamist militant group Boko Haram, which is affiliated to the Islamic State; Mr. Obama dispatched 300 troops to Cameroon in October to join the fight there. “If Mr. Biya seems lackadaisical about governance, he has proved adept at the day-to-day mechanics of holding on to power,” The New York Times wrote in 1997. _____ | |
| Mr. Obiang took power in a 1979 coup and has held on to his oil-rich West African country, the continent’s only Spanish-speaking nation, ever since. American oil companies do big business there. A United States diplomat, using language that made human rights advocates fume, described his rule as a “mellowing, benign leadership” in a cable obtained by WikiLeaks. | Mr. Obiang took power in a 1979 coup and has held on to his oil-rich West African country, the continent’s only Spanish-speaking nation, ever since. American oil companies do big business there. A United States diplomat, using language that made human rights advocates fume, described his rule as a “mellowing, benign leadership” in a cable obtained by WikiLeaks. |
| Several years ago, Mr. Obiang hired Lanny J. Davis, a former adviser to President Bill Clinton, for something of an image remake. But it did not help that the president’s eldest son was leading the lavish life of a playboy in Paris. _____ | |
| A war in western Darfur, genocide charges by the International Criminal Court and a bloody conflict that ended with the creation of South Sudan in 2011 have not been sufficient to dislodge Mr. Bashir, in power since 1989. He has shown himself as one of the Continent’s most durable rulers, partly a result of the strategically pivotal place of his nation in the Muslim world. | A war in western Darfur, genocide charges by the International Criminal Court and a bloody conflict that ended with the creation of South Sudan in 2011 have not been sufficient to dislodge Mr. Bashir, in power since 1989. He has shown himself as one of the Continent’s most durable rulers, partly a result of the strategically pivotal place of his nation in the Muslim world. |
| Last year, Sudan joined the Saudi-led coalition in support of Yemen’s embattled government, distancing itself from its longtime friend Iran. Also last year, Mr. Bashir was re-elected with a remarkable 94 percent of the vote, in an election his opponents boycotted as a sham. _____ | |
| In March, Mr. dos Santos, president for nearly four decades, said he would step down in 2018. Observers are waiting to see if he means it this time: In 2001, as the mineral-rich former Portuguese colony was winding down a decades-long civil war, Mr. dos Santos said he would not run for re-election, and then reneged on that pledge. | In March, Mr. dos Santos, president for nearly four decades, said he would step down in 2018. Observers are waiting to see if he means it this time: In 2001, as the mineral-rich former Portuguese colony was winding down a decades-long civil war, Mr. dos Santos said he would not run for re-election, and then reneged on that pledge. |
| “Mr. dos Santos has built a nation where Porsches and Lamborghinis ply the city streets and luxury apartments loom over the skyline, and where the well-heeled dance at nightclubs with a $100 cover charge,” The New York Times wrote in 2012. Last year, The New Yorker published a profile of the capital, Luanda, one of the most unequal cities on earth. _____ | |
| The tough, bespectacled Mr. Déby has faced down the former Libyan dictator Muammar el-Qaddafi, unruly members of his own family and a 2008 rebellion. He shows no signs of slowing down. Loathed by human rights groups, he has nonetheless been an effective friend of the United States and France, its former colonial ruler, in a region of the world where the West is deeply alarmed about the role of Islamist militancy. | The tough, bespectacled Mr. Déby has faced down the former Libyan dictator Muammar el-Qaddafi, unruly members of his own family and a 2008 rebellion. He shows no signs of slowing down. Loathed by human rights groups, he has nonetheless been an effective friend of the United States and France, its former colonial ruler, in a region of the world where the West is deeply alarmed about the role of Islamist militancy. |
| “The Chadian elite connected to him enjoy gargantuan villas, looming above the battered one-story dwellings of ordinary people,” The Times reported last year, noting that he had shamed Nigeria over not doing more to battle Boko Haram. The article also noted that Chadian police officers had beaten student demonstrators and that Chadian soldiers were accused of serious human rights violations during their intervention in the Central African Republic in 2014. _____ | |
| Eritrea has been compared to North Korea, and Mr. Isaias, its president since independence from Ethiopia in 1993, has presided over systematic and extreme abuses that may amount to crimes against humanity, according to a panel of United Nations investigators. | Eritrea has been compared to North Korea, and Mr. Isaias, its president since independence from Ethiopia in 1993, has presided over systematic and extreme abuses that may amount to crimes against humanity, according to a panel of United Nations investigators. |
| Mr. Isaias, trained as an engineer, has been fairly ruthless at keeping power: He canceled presidential elections in 1997, all but shut down the press in 2001 and has used a longstanding border dispute with Ethiopia to avoid implementing Eritrea’s Constitution, which was ratified in 1997. _____ | |
| Mr. Jammeh was a 29-year-old military officer trained in the United States when he took power in a 1994 bloodless coup, promising to root out corruption and raise living standards in a West African country named for the river that bisects it. His reign has become more eccentric and bizarre in recent years. In 2009, scores of people were seized from their homes and taken to a variety of secret locations in a campaign against witchcraft. | Mr. Jammeh was a 29-year-old military officer trained in the United States when he took power in a 1994 bloodless coup, promising to root out corruption and raise living standards in a West African country named for the river that bisects it. His reign has become more eccentric and bizarre in recent years. In 2009, scores of people were seized from their homes and taken to a variety of secret locations in a campaign against witchcraft. |
| “There they were forced to drink a foul-smelling concoction that made them hallucinate, gave them severe stomach pains, induced some to try digging a hole in a tiled floor, made others try climbing up a wall and in some cases killed them, according to the villagers themselves and Amnesty International,” The Times reported. Some fled into the bush or into neighboring Senegal. _____ | |
| The Republic of Congo — not to be confused with its larger neighbor, the Democratic Republic of Congo — was once the seat of France’s colonial empire in West Africa. It became a Marxist one-party state in 1970, but in 1977, as the oil industry rapidly expanded, and amid a climate of Cold War politics, the country’s leftist president was assassinated under mysterious circumstances, eventually leading to a takeover by a military officer, Mr. Sassou-Nguesso. | The Republic of Congo — not to be confused with its larger neighbor, the Democratic Republic of Congo — was once the seat of France’s colonial empire in West Africa. It became a Marxist one-party state in 1970, but in 1977, as the oil industry rapidly expanded, and amid a climate of Cold War politics, the country’s leftist president was assassinated under mysterious circumstances, eventually leading to a takeover by a military officer, Mr. Sassou-Nguesso. |
| Known for his taste in French fashions, Mr. Sassou-Nguesso handed over the oil industry lock, stock and barrel to a French conglomerate, enriching himself and his colleagues. Then, Mr. Sassou-Nguesso stunned his countrymen — and much of the world — by acknowledging his ill-gotten gains and voluntarily relinquishing power, leading to multiparty elections in 1992. | Known for his taste in French fashions, Mr. Sassou-Nguesso handed over the oil industry lock, stock and barrel to a French conglomerate, enriching himself and his colleagues. Then, Mr. Sassou-Nguesso stunned his countrymen — and much of the world — by acknowledging his ill-gotten gains and voluntarily relinquishing power, leading to multiparty elections in 1992. |
| It was not to last. Mr. Sassou-Nguesso regained power in a 1997 coup. He was most recently re-elected in March, in a vote that critics derided as rigged. | It was not to last. Mr. Sassou-Nguesso regained power in a 1997 coup. He was most recently re-elected in March, in a vote that critics derided as rigged. |