Tanzania’s President John Magufuli dead at 61

Tanzania’s President John Magufuli, one of Africa’s most prominent coronavirus skeptics, has died aged 61, Vice President Samia Suluhu Hassan said on Wednesday after a more than two-week absence from public life that led to speculation about his health.

She said he died from the heart disease that had plagued him for a decade. She said burial arrangements were underway and announced 14 days of mourning and the flying of flags at half staff. State television broadcast mournful and religious songs.

Magufuli had not been seen in public since Feb. 27, sparking rumors that he had contracted COVID-19. Officials denied on March 12 that he had fallen ill and on Monday the vice president urged Tanzanians not to listen to rumors from outside the country and said it was normal for a human being to be checked for the flu or fever.

“Dear Tanzanians, it is sad to announce that today 17 March 2021 around 6 p.m. we lost our brave leader, President John Magufuli who died from heart disease at Mzena hospital in Dar es Salaam where he was getting treatment,” the vice president said on state broadcaster TBC.

He was Tanzania’s first president to die while in office. Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa said on Friday that he had spoken to Magufuli, and blamed the narrative of the president’s ailment on some “hateful” Tanzanians living abroad.

Tundu Lissu, Magufuli’s main rival in the October election when the president won a second five-year term, had suggested Tanzania’s leader had been flown to Kenya for treatment for COVID-19 and then moved to India in a coma.