President John Magufuli of Tanzania, a prominent COVID-19 skeptic in Africa whose populist government often places his East African country in a harsh international spotlight, has died. He was 61 years old.
Magufuli’s death was announced on Wednesday by Vice President Samia Suluhu, who said the president had died of heart failure.
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LILER – In this file photo of Friday, October 23, 2015, President John Magufuli is speaking at an election rally in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. (AP Photo / Khalfan Said, file)
“Our beloved president is over tonight at 6pm,” Suluhu said on national television. “All flags will be flown at half-mast for 14 days. This is sad news. The president has had this disease for the past ten years.”
The vice president said Magufuli died at a hospital in Dar es Salaam, the Indian Ocean port, the largest city in Tanzania.
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FILE – On this Sunday, October 25, 2015 file photo, the presidential candidate of Tanzania, John Magufuli, casts his vote in his hometown of Chato, Northern Tanzania. (AP photo, file)
Magufuli has not been seen in public since the end of February and top government officials have denied he was ill, even though rumors circulated online that he was ill and possibly unfit for illness.
Magufuli was one of Africa’s main deniers of COVID-19. He said last year that Tanzania had eradicated the disease through three days of national prayer. Tanzania has not reported its COVID-19 numbers of confirmed cases and deaths to African health authorities since April 2020.
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FILE – In this file from Saturday, July 11, 2020, President John Magufuli speaks at the National Congress of his ruling Chama cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party in Dodoma, Tanzania. (AP photo, file)
But apparently the number of deaths of people experiencing breathing problems has increased and earlier this month the US embassy warned of a significant increase in the number of COVID-19 cases in Tanzania since January. Days later, the presidency announced the death of John Kijazi, general secretary of Magufuli. Shortly after the death was announced by the vice-president of the semi-autonomous island region of Zanzibar, whose political party had previously reported that he had COVID-19.
Critics have claimed that Magufuli’s dismissal of the threat of COVID-19, as well as his refusal to shut down the country like others in the region, may have contributed to many unknown deaths.