On the night of April 12, 2026, a Berekum Chelsea bus carrying about 30 players and officials home from a Ghana Premier League match was ambushed by armed men on the road from Samreboi. A 20-year-old player, Dominic Frimpong, was shot and died in hospital. The same day in Mumbai, Asha Bhosle, the singer whose voice had filled Indian cinema for seventy years, died at 92. These are ten of the best-known people who died in April 2026.
1. James Gadson (April 2, aged 86)
James Gadson was the drummer in Charles Wright and the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band and then one of the most recorded session drummers in Los Angeles. His drumming can be heard on Bill Withers’ early-1970s records, and producers in Los Angeles called on him for decades of soul, funk and pop sessions.
2. Mircea Lucescu (April 7, aged 80)
Mircea Lucescu captained Romania at the 1970 World Cup and spent the next half-century as a coach. His longest job was twelve years at Shakhtar Donetsk, where he won eight Ukrainian titles and the 2009 UEFA Cup. He was back in charge of Romania at 80 and died twelve days after managing the team in a World Cup play-off, following a heart attack.
3. Afrika Bambaataa (April 9, aged 68)
Afrika Bambaataa founded the Universal Zulu Nation in the Bronx in the 1970s and, with “Planet Rock” in 1982, fused hip-hop with German electronic music and invented electro. His lawyer said he died of complications from prostate cancer. His last decade was overshadowed by allegations of sexual abuse, which he denied; a 2021 civil case against him was decided in the accuser’s favour when he did not appear in court.
4. Asha Bhosle (April 12, aged 92)
Asha Bhosle recorded around 12,000 songs, by the AP’s count, as a playback singer for Indian films, moving between cabaret numbers, ghazals and pop. She was the younger sister of Lata Mangeshkar, who died in 2022. A doctor at Breach Candy Hospital in Mumbai said she died of multiple organ failure. Prime Minister Narendra Modi led the tributes.
5. Dominic Frimpong (April 12, aged 20)
Dominic Frimpong was on loan at Berekum Chelsea from Aduana FC and had made more than ten league appearances for the club that season. Police said six armed men ambushed the team bus at about 10:30 p.m. on the road from Samreboi. Frimpong was shot and died while receiving treatment. The Ghana Football Association said it would review security for clubs travelling within the country.
6. Moya Brennan (aged 73, announced April 14)
Moya Brennan co-founded Clannad with her brothers and uncles in Donegal in 1970 and sang lead for more than fifty years, including on “Theme from Harry’s Game”. Her sister is Enya, who sang with the band before going solo. Her family said she died peacefully at home surrounded by loved ones.
7. Garret Anderson (April 16, aged 53)
Garret Anderson spent fifteen seasons with the Angels and won the World Series with them in 2002, driving in three runs in the deciding Game 7. He is the franchise’s all-time leader in hits and runs batted in. He was 53.
8. Oscar Schmidt (April 17, aged 68)
Oscar Schmidt never played in the NBA, but he holds the record for most points in Olympic basketball history, 1,093, scored over five Olympic Games for Brazil. Brazilians called him Mão Santa, the Holy Hand. His family said he had lived with a brain tumour for fifteen years. He was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2013.
9. Nathalie Baye (aged 77, announced April 18)
Nathalie Baye won the César for best actress four times and worked with François Truffaut, beginning with Day for Night in 1973, and later with Claude Chabrol and Xavier Dolan. She had a daughter, the actress Laura Smet, with Johnny Hallyday. Her family said she died at her Paris home of Lewy body dementia. President Emmanuel Macron paid tribute.
10. Alan Osmond (April 20, aged 76)
Alan Osmond was the eldest of the Osmond Brothers, who began as a barbershop quartet in the 1950s and became teen idols in the 1970s. He co-wrote “Crazy Horses”. Diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1987, he stopped performing and later used a wheelchair. He died at home in Lehi, Utah, with his wife and their eight sons beside him. His brother Wayne had died in 2025.
Frimpong was the youngest person on this list by 33 years. Bhosle, who died on the same day, had been recording for more than half a century before he was born.