APA-Dar es Salaam (Tanzania) The death has been announced of the second president of an independent Tanzania, Ali Hassan Mwinyi at the age of 98, APA can report on Friday.
Current president Samia Suluhu Hassan cnfirming the news on state television said Mwinyi died at Mzena Hospital in Dar es Salaam on Thursday evening following a long battle with lung cancer.
A seven-day period of national mourning which began on Friday has already been declared while all flags in Tanzania are flying at half-mast.
Mwinyi became president in 1985 after his predecessor Mwalimu Julius Nyerere retired.
He left office in 1995.
WN/as/APA