Aga Khan, leader of Ismaili Muslims, dies aged 88: foundation
The Aga Khan, imam of the Ismaili Muslims and head of a major development aid network, has died in Lisbon at the age of 88, his foundation announced on Wednesday.
He was the founder and president of the Aga Khan Development Network, which employs 96,000 people and finances development programmes particularly in Asia and Africa.
"His Highness Prince Karim Al-Hussaini, Aga Khan IV, 49th hereditary Imam of the Shia Ismaili Muslims and direct descendant of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), passed away peacefully in Lisbon on 4 February 2025, aged 88, surrounded by his family," the foundation said in a statement.
"The announcement of his designated successor will follow," the statement added, regarding who could become the fifth person to hold the post since the 19th century.
Present in multiple countries, notably in central and southern Asia, Africa and the Middle East, the Ismaili community numbers 12 to 15 million, according to its website.
United Nations chief Antonio Guterres described the Aga Khan as "a symbol of peace, tolerance and compassion in our troubled world" following the religious leader's death.
Malala Yousafzai, Nobel Peace laureate and education campaigner, said his legacy would "live on through the incredible work he led for education, health and development around the world".
Born in Geneva, the Aga Khan spent his childhood in Kenya and was appointed in Tanzania to succeed his grandfather in 1957.
His father was passed over in the line of succession after a tumultuous marriage to American actor Rita Hayworth.
A billionaire owner of yachts and jets, the Aga Khan was a regular on the racetrack and continued the family tradition of breeding thoroughbreds.
He also ploughed a large amount of his inherited wealth into philanthropic projects.
- 'Extraordinary man of vision' -
The apolitical and secular development foundation he created in 1967 is credited with raising literacy levels in 18 countries across South and Central Asia, Africa and the Middle East.
Its work in Pakistan earned the Aga Khan the wrath of Sunni Taliban militants who accused the foundation's schools of "brainwashing" men and women to stay away from Islam.
During his lifetime, the Aga Khan was awarded honorary Canadian citizenship for his work on development and "tolerance around the world".
He also held British and Portuguese citizenship. The Ismaili leadership is based in Lisbon, where there is a significant community.
Britain's King Charles was "deeply saddened" by the death of the Aga Khan, who was "a personal friend of many years", an unnamed royal source was quoted in the British press as saying.
Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau described the Aga Khan as an "extraordinary man of vision, faith, and generosity" who "devoted his life to peace and prosperity for all".
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, praised "his exemplary commitment to culture, philanthropy and humanitarian causes".
Despite his role as the spiritual head of the Ismaili Muslims, he was reluctant to discuss Middle East conflicts, religious fundamentalism or Sunni-Shiite tensions.
Islam is not a faith "of conflict or social disorder, it's a religion of peace," he told AFP in 2017.
It is used in situations which are "essentially political, but which are presented, for various reasons, in a theological context. This is simply not correct," he said.
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They are placed in robust shipping packages consistent with federal and state regulations and shipped to the Department of Energy's Hanford Site in Hanford, Washington. The packages make the 700-mile journey by barge from the shipyard in Bremerton down the Washington coast and up the Columbia River before being transported on a multi-wheeled transporter to the site for safe, permanent disposal. As of March 2025, more than 140 reactor compartment disposal packages had been transported by PSNS & IMF to the Hanford Site since 1986, reflecting the huge scale of the decommissioning effort. It's only more recently that the United Kingdom started a similar kind of disposal project for its unwanted nuclear subs. While Swiftsure will be the first Royal Navy submarine to be fully dismantled and decommissioned, Babcock is now also under contract to prepare for the nuclear defueling of four Trafalgar class SSNs. Nuclear defueling has been done before in the United Kingdom — all seven of the boats at Rosyth have had their fuel removed, and of the 16 boats at Devonport, four are also without fuel. However, the work on the four Trafalgar class SSNs will be the first nuclear defueling of a decommissioned Royal Navy submarine in over 20 years. According to Navy Lookout, until 2003, nuclear subs had their fuel removed soon after decommissioning, but this process was abandoned after it was determined that the facilities for doing this work were no longer safe enough. As an interim measure, these submarines had their primary circuit chemically treated to ensure it remains inert and were fitted with additional radiation-monitoring equipment. 'This meant fully fueled boats have been stored afloat for the last two decades while a solution was developed at a glacial pace,' Navy Lookout reported yesterday. 'The submarines that have not had fuel removed have their reactor primary circuit chemically treated to guarantee it remains inert, and additional radiation monitoring equipment is fitted.' To make the defueling process safer, the previous cranes used to remove the fuel have been replaced with a so-called Reactor Access House. Moving on rails, this is an enclosure that is positioned over the submarine in a dry dock, after which the reactor pressure vessel (RPV) is hoisted into it. The largest and most radioactive element of the submarine, the RPV is then transported to the Sellafield nuclear site for above-ground storage. Longer-term, it's expected that the RPVs will be buried underground, but this plan has yet to be finalized. Here again, there are differences with the U.S. approach, as Alex Luck, an analyst who closely follows submarine developments, told TWZ: '[Decommissioned U.S. Navy submarines] get defuelled, and the remaining material goes to Idaho for processing and then storage. The reactors and all associated elements are cut up and put into special waste storage sites. Unlike the United Kingdom, the United States simply disposes of a lot of material by burying it. The United Kingdom, on the other hand, is reprocessing and recycling as much as possible due to their far more limited capacity/tighter regulations for 'buried,' i.e., long-term stored waste.' Regardless, once the RPVs are removed, the submarines can start to be fully broken down, as is now happening with Swiftsure at Rosyth. While there was already some urgency to develop a plan to finally dispose of decommissioned nuclear-powered submarines, the problem is only set to grow in the years to come. The four Vanguard class SSBNs that entered service in the 1990s and currently comprise the United Kingdom's permanent at-sea deterrent are scheduled to be taken out of service between 2031 and 2040. These will be replaced by a similar number of new Dreadnought class SSBNs. The four Dreadnought boats represent one of the most important U.K. defense programs in many years, and you can read more about their design here. Beyond that, starting in the late 2030s, the United Kingdom will have to dispose of seven Astute class SSNs. These will be replaced by an increased fleet of up to 12 SSNs, to be developed under the SSN-AUKUS in collaboration with Australia and the United States, in a plan that was outlined in the Strategic Defense Review earlier this week. Despite these plans for expansion, the Royal Navy's submarine fleet will remain a shadow of its numerical strength back in its Cold War heyday. For many years, the growing backlog of retired nuclear-powered submarines stood testament to that period of naval power. Now, with the milestone cutting of the exterior of Swiftsure, this increasingly problematic and costly legacy is starting to be dealt with. Contact the author: thomas@
