He had not been seen in public for almost three weeks.
Tanzanian President John Magufuli is dead, Vice President Samia Suhulu Hassan announced on television on Wednesday March 17.
"It is with great regret that I inform you that today, March 17, 2021, at 6 p.m., we have lost our courageous leader, the President of Tanzania, John Pombe Magufuli," said Samia Suluhu Hassan.
She said the president died at Emilio Mzena Hospital, a government facility in Dar es Salaam, where he was being treated.
John Magufuli last appeared in public on February 27.
Death of the president of #Tanzania John Magufuli.
Its vice-president Samia Suhulu, 61, will ensure the end of the mandate.
She becomes the first president in the history of the country.
pic.twitter.com/ZJrYESFIm9
- Franck FOUTE ™ (@FranckFoute) March 17, 2021
A week ago, opposition leader Tundu Lissu, in exile in Belgium, like others began to question the president's absence, saying he had a severe form of Covid-19, aggravated by health problems.
On Monday, Tundu Lissu said on Twitter that, according to intelligence sources, the president "has Covid, on life support and paralyzed on one side, from the waist. Tell people the truth!"
In February, Tanzania, which claimed to be "liberated" from Covid-19 thanks to prayers, experienced a wave of deaths, officially attributed to pneumonia.
Leading figures, including the vice-president of the Zanzibar Archipelago, Seif Sharif Hamad, have been affected.
John Magufuli, nicknamed the "Bulldozer", came to power in 2015 promising to fight corruption.
But his first term was also marked, according to many human rights organizations, by an authoritarian drift, repeated attacks on the opposition and the decline in fundamental freedoms.
With AFP
The summary of the week
France 24 invites you to come back to the news that marked the week
I subscribe
Take international news everywhere with you!
Download the France 24 application
google-play-badge_FR