Gnassingbe Eyadema, 69, the president of Togo and Africa's longest-ruling leader, died Feb. 5 as he was being rushed to Europe for treatment after a heart attack.

Hours later, Togo's military high command announced on state television that Mr. Eyadema's son, Faure Gnassingbe, would be the West African nation's new president.

According to Togo's constitution, the speaker of parliament, Fanbare Tchaba, should succeed the president in the event of his death. It was not immediately clear why that did not happen. State television later broadcast images of Army Chief of Staff Zakari Nandja and other generals swearing an oath of allegiance to Faure Gnassingbe as "the acting president."

Speaking on state radio, Prime Minister Koffi Sama called upon the security forces to keep law and order. He also announced that all land and air borders to the tiny West African country had been closed.

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Mr. Eyadema, a former wrestling champion who liked to sport dark suits and rarely took off his sunglasses, was a young soldier when he staged one of the continent's first post-colonial coups in 1963. He took power in his own name four years later and ruled the former French colony virtually unchallenged, holding power through patronage, the loyalty of ethnic and regional groups and military force.

Despite earlier pledges to step down at the end of his second elected term in 2003, he decided to "sacrifice himself once more," in the words of his prime minister, and the constitution was tweaked to let him run again.

On the African stage, Mr. Eyadema cast himself as a peacemaker, focusing on regional diplomacy and, most recently, helping to mediate in Ivory Coast's civil war. But at home, his authoritarian style and the slow pace of political reform drew international criticism.

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The rights group Amnesty International accused Mr. Eyadema's forces of killing hundreds of people during a 1998 presidential election, in which he was declared the winner after the vote count was abruptly stopped.

He survived numerous assassination attempts, a plane crash and bloody pro-democracy protests in the 1990s.

He was believed to have heart problems, but the state of his health was not made public. Two weeks ago, he traveled to Switzerland for what authorities said was a medical checkup.

Mr. Eyadema's death means Omar Bongo of Gabon, another former French colony, is now the longest-serving African leader, having been in power since 1967. Only Cuba's Fidel Castro has been in power longer than Mr. Eyadema was.

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