Tanzania President John Pombe Magufuli has died of a ‘cardiac arrest at the age of 61, the government in Dar es Salaam announced in a statement shared with APA late on Wednesday.
The official announcement of Mr Magufuli’s death at a Dar es Salaam hospital, comes after speculations last week that the Tanzanian leader had been taken seriously ill with Covid-19 and was being treated in Kenya.
Confirming the news Vice President Samia Suluhu Hassan: “It is with deep regret that I inform you that today… we lost our brave leader, the president of the Republic of Tanzania, John Pombe Magufuli”.
During a declared 14-day national mourning beginning on Thursday, flags across Tanzania would be flown at half mast.
Mr Magufuli, has not been seen in public for almost two weeks, heightening speculations that he had contracted coronavirus.
This was never independently verified.
Authorities in Tanzania, have refused to record Covid-19 cases since April 2020, with Mr Magufuli (61) claiming the country had defeated the virus.
“Our enemies will say a lot, but here in Tanzania we are safe,” he declared last July.
“We put God first, and God heard us.”
He encouraged citizens to continue to work and to attend church.
Mr Magufuli has questioned the object of testing, claiming that a goat and a pawpaw fruit tested positive for Covid-19.
He said vaccines weren’t necessary and that Tanzanians shouldn’t be used as “guinea pigs”.
Mr Magufuli was re-elected for a second term in October, in an election whose outcome was hotly disputed by his political opponents.
CU/as/APA