Opposition leader insists Magufuli died of coronavirus

Tundu Lissu, a Tanzanian opposition leader, has said President John Magufuli died of coronovirus. His claim varies from that of the government, which said Magufuli died of heart failure.

Lissu tweeted Magufuli’s death did not come to him as a surprise. He said he had known the Tanzanian leader was gravelly ill all along.

He says he had learned from “very credible sources in government” that the president was ill with Covid-19.

“The only thing that surprises me is the fact they continued to lie, even now his government continues to lie.

“Magufuli died of corona, that’s one. Two, Magufuli did not die this [ Wednesday] evening…I have information from the same sources that Magufuli had [already] been dead,” Lissu told Kenya’s private television station KTN.

Tanzania Vice-President Samia Suluhu Hassan, in an address on state television on Wednesday, said President Magufuli had died hours earlier from heart complications at a hospital in Dar es Salaam.

The president had not been seen in public for more than two weeks, and rumours have been circulating about his health.