- March 17, 2021
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Breaking News: Tanzanian President John Pombe Magufuli Is Dead
The Latest news coming in from Tanzania indicate that president John Pombe Magufuli is dead.
In a televised address on Thursday night, Tanzania vice-president Samia Suluhu Hassan said that Magufuli had died of heart complications.
Hassan said that Magufuli was hospitalised on March 6 at the Jakaya Kikwete Cardiac Institute.
She also announced that the country would get into a 14-day period of mourning as arrangements for the burial are made.
Magufuli, who has in the past year proclaimed there was no Covid in Tanzania, had been rumoured to have been struck by the virus and flown to Nairobi on March 8 via an Amref Flying Doctors service.
In Tanzania, authorities kept a studious silence, sparking off talk of Magufuli’s whereabouts.
Magufuli, 61, had last been seen in public on February 24 during a tour of the commercial hub, Dar es Salaam, where he inspected projects and addressed public gatherings.
Magufuli was born on October 29, 1959 in Chato, north-western Tanzania and has been in office since 2015 as the fifth president.
He has previously served as a deputy minister and minister in previous administrations in Tanzania.
Magufuli was serving his second term that was to run until 2025 after controversially winning the Presidential election in November 2020.
In its final results, the NEC said the president took 84 per cent of the vote, while opposition candidate Tundu Lissu received 13 per cent.
