Africa's longest serving ruler, President Gnassingbe Eyadema of Togo, died on Saturday at the age of 69, after ruling his small West African country for 38 years, the government said in a statement. "The president of the republic, Gnassingbe Eyadema, is no more. He died on Saturday, Feb. 5, 2005 as he was being evacuated for emergency treatment abroad," the statement said. Eyadema, who survived numerous assassination attempts, a plane crash and bloody pro-democracy protests in the 1990s, had been suffering from illness for a few years and had been abroad on several occasions recently for medical treatment. According to the constitution, the head of Togo's national assembly, Fambare Ouattara Natchaba, assumes provisional power following Eyadema's death. Polls to elect a new president must be held within 60 days. Prime Minister Koffi Sama, reading out the government statement on national radio, said that to ensure security, Togo was closing its land, sea and air borders until further notice. "The government, the armed forces and security forces will keep watch so that order, security and peace reign throughout the country," he said. Shortly afterwards, state media cut their normal programming to play religious music. The capital Lome was quiet. Born in 1935, Eyadema is a former wrestling champion who loved to sport dark suits and rarely removed his sunglasses. He was a young soldier when he staged one of the continent's first post-colonial coups in 1963. Eyadema took power in his own name four years later and ruled the former French colony virtually unchallenged, becoming the archetypal African "Big Man".
