President John Magufuli of Tanzania, a COVID-19 skeptic whose populist rule often cast his East African country in a harsh international spotlight, has died. Magufuli’s death was announced Wednesday by Vice President Samia Suluhu, who said the president died of heart failure. “Our beloved president passed on at 6 p.m. this evening,” said Suluhu on national television. The president has had this illness for the past 10 years.”The vice president said that Magufuli died at a hospital in Dar es Salaam, the Indian Ocean port that is Tanzania’s largest city. Soon after, the vice president of the semiautonomous island region of Zanzibar was announced.

Source: Los Angeles Times March 17, 2021 21:49 UTC