The president of Tanzania, John Magufuli, "died of the coronavirus, this is a form of poetic justice".
This was stated by the
African country's
opposition leader
, Tundu Lissu in an interview from Belgium to Kenyan TV KTN News, citing "his sources".
61-year-old Magufuli, first elected in 2015 and then again in last year in rather controversial elections, has
insisted for months that the virus was no longer in Tanzania and that it had been defeated by prayer
.
He has always refused to wear the mask, let alone to resort to containment measures.
A week before being last seen, however, the president had to admit that the virus was still in circulation, having spread the news of the death from Covid of the vice president of Zanzibar.
Now, after Magufili's death, his vice president will be called to replace him, according to the Constitution for the entire second term of the deceased, which expires in 2025. Samia Suluhu Hassan
thus becomes the first female president
of Tanzania.
Former office worker and aid worker, Hassan, of Muslim faith and born in 1960, began her political career in the native semi-autonomous archipelago of Zanzibar in 2000, before being elected to the National Assembly of Tanzania and assigned to a high ranking ministry.
A supporter of the ruling party, she climbed the ranks to be chosen by Magufuli as a candidate for vice president in her first presidential election campaign of 2015.