Tanzania President John Magufuli (center) waves as he arrives at a stadium to give a speech last August. Magufuli’s death was announced Wednesday. He was 61.
Ericky Boniphace/AFP via Getty Images
Ericky Boniphace/AFP via Getty Images
Tanzanian president John Magufuli has died at age 61. His death was announced on state television by Vice President Samia Suluhu Hassan, who said the cause of death was heart failure.
Magufuli, who was 61, was a prominent coronavirus skeptic. He had not been seen in public since the end of February, fueling speculation that he was ill and possibly incapacitated.
He claimed last year that Tanzania had eradicated COVID-19 through three days of prayer, the Associated Press reports. He played down the pandemic and denounced vaccines as a Western conspiracy against Africans.
Tanzania has not updated its COVID-19 cases or deaths since May 2020, but a doctor in Dar es Salaam told the BBC that there has been a significant increase in the last two months in admissions of patients exhibiting respiratory symptoms consistent with COVID-19.
Magufuli, a former chemistry teacher, was first elected to the presidency in 2015. Critics said he moved the country toward authoritarianism, while others praised his earlier battles against corruption.
A diplomatically worded statement last month by Donald Wright, the U.S. Ambassador to Tanzania, called on governments to share accurate and timely information about their countries’ case numbers with the World Health Organization.
