British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Uganda’s leading opposition leader Robert Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine have expressed their sympathies at the death of Tanzania’s President Dr. John Pombe Magufuli.
“My thoughts are with his loved ones and the people of Tanzania,” PM Johnson wrote in a post on Twitter.
On the other hand, Bobi Wine wrote: “My heartfelt condolences to the people of the United Republic of Tanzania on losing President John Pombe Magufuli. Eternal repose”.
In a televised address to the nation late on Wednesday, Vice President Samia Suluhu Hassan said the 61-year-old president had died of a “heart condition”, which he had suffered for 10 years at a hospital in Dar-Es-Salaam.
Magufuli had first been briefly admitted to the Jakaya Kikwete Cardiac Institute on March 6, but was subsequently discharged, Hassan said on state television. But he was rushed to hospital again on March 14 after feeling unwell.
After the death was announced, opposition leader Zitto Kabwe said he had spoken to Hassan to offer condolences for Magufuli’s death.
“The nation will remember him for his contribution to the development of our country,” Kabwe said in a statement published on Twitter.
According to Tanzania’s Constitution, Hassan, 61, should assume the presidency for the remainder of the five-year term that Magufuli began serving last year after winning a second term.