Nigerien President Mahamadou Issoufou, set to step down after two terms as president, was last week awarded the Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership.

He recalls the popular challenge now underway against Omar al-Bashir’s rule in Sudan; the deaths of Kofi Annan, the first African secretary General of UN, and Winnie Mandela, a flawed leader of the South African liberation movement; the highly positive emergence of the reform-minded Abiy Ahmed, the Ethiopian prime minister; and the international attention to Congolese surgeon Denis Mukwege, who won a Nobel Peace prize for his work with rape victims.

Ten people who passed away this year who shaped world affairs for better or worse.