John Magufuli: Tanzania's president dies aged 61 after Covid rumours

 

The 61-year-old president died from heart complications on Wednesday

Tanzania's President John Magufuli has died aged 61, the country's vice-president has announced.

He died on Wednesday from heart complications at a hospital in Dar es Salaam, Samia Suluhu Hassan said in an address on state television.

Mr Magufuli had not been seen in public for more than two weeks, and rumours had been circulating about his health.

Opposition politicians said last week that he had contracted Covid-19, but this has not been confirmed.

Mr Magufuli was one of Africa's most prominent coronavirus sceptics, and called for prayers and herbal-infused steam therapy to counter the virus.

"It is with deep regret that I inform you that today... we lost our brave leader, the president of the Republic of Tanzania, John Pombe Magufuli," Vice-President Hassan said in the announcement.

She said there would be 14 days of national mourning and flags would fly at half-mast.

 

According to Tanzania's constitution, Ms Hassan will be sworn in as the new president within 24 hours and should serve the remainder of Mr Magufuli's five-year term which he began last year.

Mr Magufuli was last seen in public on 27 February, but Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa insisted last week that the president was "healthy and working hard".

He blamed the rumours of the president's ill-health on "hateful" Tanzanians living abroad.

But opposition leader Tundu Lissu told the BBC that his sources had told him Mr Magufuli was being treated in hospital for coronavirus in Kenya.

 

When Covid-19 arrived in Tanzania, Mr Magufuli called on people to go to churches and mosques to pray. "Coronavirus, which is a devil, cannot survive in the body of Christ... It will burn instantly," he said.

He declared Tanzania "Covid-19 free" last June, saying the virus had been eradicated by three days of national prayer.

He also mocked the efficacy of masks, expressed doubts about testing, and teased neighbouring countries which imposed health measures to curb the virus.

"Countries in Africa will be coming here to buy food in the years to come… they will be suffering because of shutting down their economy," he said, according to the Associated Press.

Tanzania has not published details of its coronavirus cases since May, and the government has refused to purchase vaccines.

On Monday, police said they had arrested four people on suspicion of spreading rumours on social media that the president was ill.

"To spread rumours that he's sick smacks of hate," Mr Majaliwa said at the time.

Shock and disbelief in Tanzania

Analysis by Athuman Mtulya, Dar es Salaam

The country is in a sombre mood - for the first time in its six decades of existence, Tanzania has lost a sitting president, John Pombe Magufuli.

The news of his death was received with shock and disbelief - although there were rumours of his illness, the authorities reassured the country that all was well with him.

From his home district of Chato to the capital of Dodoma to the business hub of Dar es Salaam, most Tanzanians have been mourning Magufuli.

There are those with a different view, especially on social media led by exiled opposition politician Tundu Lissu, who has been speculating that President Magufuli had contracted Covid which led to his death, however the authorities have insisted the death was caused by heart complications.

Tanzanians are now turning their minds to the succession, which should see current Vice-President Samia Suluhu Hassan become the country's first female president.

 

Mr Magufuli was declared president on his 56th birthday in October 2015. He was elected for a second term following a disputed poll last year.

He was hailed for his anti-corruption stance during his time in office, but he was also accused of cracking down on dissent and curtailing certain freedoms.

 

His critics agree that Mr Magufuli contributed to Tanzania's development. He invested in large infrastructure projects such as a standard-gauge railway to connect the country with its neighbours, major highways, and a bus system in the commercial hub of Dar es Salaam.

He also increased electricity production, reducing the need for power rationing.

But it is his approach to Covid-19 that many analysts say will define his legacy.

 

African leaders pay tribute

In Tanzania, people have reacted with grief and disbelief to the news of Mr Magufuli's death.

One, Joseph Petro, told the BBC he thought Mr Magufuli was a "caring" leader, adding "he was helping people in one way or another".

"I am really pained. I am personally pained," he said.

 

Another, Illuminata Abel, offered similar sentiments: "He was not my relative, but he was someone who listened to people's problems, and he was down to earth."

African leaders have also come out to pay tribute.

Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta said: "I have lost a friend, colleague and visionary ally," and declared a seven-day period of national mourning in Kenya.

Former Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan called Mr Magufuli a "partner in democracy" and a "patriot who loved his country".

But Tanzanian opposition leader Tundu Lissu told the BBC that Mr Magufuli's "politics, policies and Covid denialism" had "driven the country towards disaster".

 

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Fourth member of Zimbabwe's cabinet dies from COVID-19

The burial of Dr Ellen Gwaradzimba who died of COVID-19, at the Heroes Acre in Harare, Thursday, Jan. 21, 2021. Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa who presided over the burial called the pandemic "evil" and urged people to wear masks, practice social distancing and sanitize, as cases across the country increased amid a fragile health system. (AP Photo/Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi)

HARARE, Zimbabwe — Four Zimbabwean Cabinet ministers have died of COVID-19, three within the past two weeks, highlighting a resurgence of the disease that is sweeping through this southern African country.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa said the coronavirus is reaping a “grim harvest” in the country.

“The pandemic has been indiscriminate. There are no spectators, adjudicators, no holier than thou. No supermen or superwomen. We are all exposed,” Mnangagwa said on a nationally televised address.

Mnangagwa presided at the burial of one Cabinet minister last week, shortly after the death of the foreign minister was announced. Then came the death of the transport minister. Several other high-profile politicians and prominent Zimbabweans have also died recently.

The opposition accuses the government of using COVID-19 as a weapon by detaining its members of parliament, officials and other critics in overcrowded jails where the disease is easily transmitted. Critics also accuse the government of neglecting the public hospitals, where many ill with COVID-19 cannot get oxygen needed to survive. Many of the country’s elites are treated at expensive private facilities or fly out of the country for health care.

The government says it is doing its best, and that despite the wide political and economic differences, fighting the virus is everyone’s war.

Zimbabwe, like many other African countries, initially recorded low numbers of COVID-19 but has recently experienced a spike in cases. There are fears that a new, more infectious variant of the virus came to the country when scores of thousands of Zimbabweans living in South Africa returned home for the holiday season.

The country of 15 million recorded a total of 31,007 cases, including 974 deaths, on Jan.23, up from the slightly more than 10,000 cases and 277 deaths at the beginning of December, according to government figures.

Zimbabwe’s rate of deaths by COVID-19 has doubled recently, with the 7-day rolling average of daily deaths rising over the past two weeks from 0.10 deaths per 100,000 people on Jan. 9 to 0.28 deaths per 100,000 people on Jan. 23, according to Johns Hopkins University.

In poor areas such as Chitungwiza, the sprawling residential area about 30 kilometers (18 miles) southeast of Harare, gravediggers are overwhelmed.

“Coronavirus, this is something I used to read about in the news, (but) it is here on our doorsteps now. People are dying,” said Coleta Moyana, a Chitungwiza resident. Officials are seeking more burial space to accommodate rising numbers of deaths.

Many people are not being tested, nor are they going to hospitals for help, said a doctors’ association, noting that on some days, nearly half of COVID-19 deaths happen outside hospitals.

“Those undiagnosed cases are super-spreading,” said the Zimbabwe Senior Hospital Doctors Association earlier this month.

“COVID-19 is affecting everyone, but it is not affecting everyone equally. It has entrenched and exacerbated the extreme inequalities and injustices that existed before the pandemic,” Itai Rusike, director of the Harare-based organization, Community Working Group on Health, told The Associated Press on Sunday.

“The majority of poor Zimbabweans without medical insurance end up dying at home,” he said.

Zimbabwe has not yet received any vaccines. Mnangagwa on Saturday said the government health officials are still deciding which vaccine to acquire.

“Our experts are very close to finalizing the course to recommend … and it will be quite soon,” he said.

 

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2 killed in Tanzania's Zanzibar historic building collapse

At least two people were killed and four others injured after Friday's collapse of The House of Wonders in Tanzania's Zanzibar, an official said on Saturday.

Khalid Salum Muhammed, Zanzibar's Minister of State in the Office of the Second Vice-President responsible for Policy, Coordination and the House of Representatives, said the two were killed after they were trapped in the rubble.

He told a news conference that two of the four injured people were in critical condition and doctors at the Mnazi Mmoja government hospital were working around the clock to save their lives.

"The bodies of the two persons were recovered by rescuers on Friday night," said Muhammed.

He appealed to members of the public to be patient as rescue work continued to comb the area and find out whether there were more people trapped in the rubble of the collapsed building.

Zanzibar's President Hussein Ali Mwinyi visited the four injured persons admitted to the hospital and ordered relevant authorities to probe the cause of the collapse of the building, said Muhammed.

The deceased and the injured were part of a team renovating The House of Wonders located in Stone Town.

The House of Wonders, built in 1883, is currently closed due to disrepair, with large sections of the veranda and roof collapsing in 2012 and 2015, respectively, threatening the structural integrity of the rest of the building.

The House of Wonders is the largest and tallest building in Stone Town and occupies a prominent place facing the Forodhani Gardens on the old town's seafront.

The construction materials of the building consisted of an original combination of coral rag, concrete slabs, mangrove shoots, and steel beams. Enditem

 

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Yellow fever claims 172 lives In Nigeria: WHO

A yellow fever outbreak in Nigeria has killed 172 people so far, the WHO said. - AFP/File

A yellow fever outbreak in Nigeria has killed 172 people so far, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said Friday.

The outbreak poses an extra challenge to the country's health system as Africa's most populous nation deals with the Covid-19 pandemic, several concurrent disease outbreaks and a humanitarian crisis in the northeast, the WHO said.

Nigeria has been battling successive yellow fever outbreaks since 2017. This latest outbreak was detected in November, WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic told reporters in Geneva.

"As of November 24, the outbreak has been reported in five states in Nigeria: Delta, Enugu, Bauchi, Benue and Ebonyi," he said.

"A total of 530 suspected cases have been reported, including 48 that have been confirmed by lab testing.

"A total of 172 deaths have been reported out of those 530 suspected cases."

He said sample testing was ongoing through national reference laboratories.

The spokesman said Nigerian national and state authorities were focused on the Covid-19 pandemic response, limiting the human resources required to conduct investigations and response activities for the yellow fever outbreaks.

Capacity has been increased in certain hospitals to help manage patients who develop yellow fever symptoms and complications.

Currently, 16 of Nigeria's 36 states and the federal capital territory have completed vaccination campaigns.

Six more are expected to do so in the first quarter of 2021, with a further six set to do so by the end of next year, bringing the total to 28, the WHO said.

The percentage of people immunised against yellow fever remains low in many parts of Africa, even though the vaccine is nearly 100 per cent effective and relatively cheap.

There is no specific treatment for yellow fever, which is largely transmitted in urban settings by mosquitoes.

Nigeria, like the rest of Africa, has so far been spared the brunt of the coronavirus pandemic but authorities are wary of a fresh wave.

So far, more than 68,300 cases of Covid-19 have been registered, and 1,179 deaths.

 

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#JusticeForUwa trends in Nigeria after student murdered in Church

UWAVERA OMOZUWA/FACEBOOK
Image caption
Uwavera Omozuwa's dream was to become a nurse

 

There is outrage in Nigeria following the murder of a 22-year-old student, Uwavera Omozuwa in a church.

The hashtag #JusticeForUwa is trending in Nigeria, with her family appealing for help to track down her killers.

Uwavera had been studying in a "quiet" church near her home in Benin City when she was killed, her sister, Judith, told BBC Pidgin.

The student, who had wanted to become a nurse, died in hospital on Saturday, three days after the attack.

Judith Omozuwa said her sister had also been raped.

Her family said they received a call from a woman at the Redeemed Christian Church of God on Wednesday evening.

Uwavera was taken to hospital after a security guard found her, her skirt torn and her shirt covered in blood, Judith Omozuwa said.

'Failure to curb gender-based violence'

However, a police spokesperson in southern Edo State, whose capital is Benin City, told BBC Pidgin that they were treating the incident as a murder, not a rape, case.

The student died following a fight at the church, the spokesperson added, without giving more details.

Uwavera had only just been admitted to the University of Benin to study microbiology when she was killed.

She often went to sit and "read" at the church near her house as it was quiet, her sister added.

Unconfirmed reports in local media said a group of men had entered the church, raping Uwavera and hitting her with a fire extinguisher.

On Tuesday, many Nigerians were angered after a policeman allegedly shot dead a 16-year-old girl, Tina Ezekwe, in the commercial capital, Lagos.

The officer was arrested, police said.

On Twitter, many Nigerians expressed concern about the government's failure to tackle gender-based violence, and questioned whether parents were bringing up boys properly.

Image Copyright @OgbeniDipo@OGBENIDIPO

Image Copyright @DJINEE@DJINEE

Image Copyright @kikimordi@KIKIMORDI

Image Copyright @crazeclown@CRAZECLOWN

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Fausta, 'world's oldest rhino', dies aged 57 in Tanzania

Black female rhino died of 'natural causes' in a sanctuary after living most of her life in wild.

The life expectancy of rhinos living in the wild is estimated to be between 37 and 43 years [File: Tom Kirkwood/Reuters]

A 57-year-old black rhino, believed to be the oldest in the world, has died in Tanzania, according to authorities in Ngorongoro where the animal was living.

The female rhino, named Fausta, died of what is believed to be natural causes on December 27 in a sanctuary, after living most of her life in the wild, the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority said in a statement on Saturday.

"Records show that Fausta lived longer than any rhino in the world and survived in the Ngorongoro, free-ranging, for more than 54 years" before she was moved to a sanctuary in 2016, said the statement.

"Fausta was first located in the Ngorongoro crater in 1965 by a scientist from the University of Dar Es Salaam, at the age between three and four years," it added. 

"Her health begun to deteriorate in 2016, when we were forced to put the animal in captivity, after several attacks from hyena and severe wounds thereafter."

Sana, a female southern white rhino, aged 55, was considered the world's oldest white rhino when she died in captivity at the La Planete Sauvage Zoological park in France, in 2017.

Ngorongoro estimates the life expectancy of rhinos to be between 37 and 43 years in the wild, while they can live to older than 50 in captivity.

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55 elephants in Zimbabwe's biggest park died due to starvation

At least 55 elephants have starved to death in the past two months in Zimbabwe’s biggest national park as a serious drought forces animals to stray into nearby communities in search of food and water, authorities said on Monday.

“The problem is real, the situation is dire,” said National Parks and Wildlife Management Authority spokesman Tinashe Farawo. Other animals such as lions at Hwange National Park have been affected.

This is the worst drought in years in the southern African nation that also suffers from a collapsing economy. Massive food and water shortages have resulted.

We have managed to significantly reduce poaching ... we were losing hundreds of elephants in past years, but last year we only lost not more than 20 to poaching.

As animals stray from Zimbabwe’s wildlife parks they destroy crops and sometimes kill people, Farawo said, adding that more than 20 people have been killed this year alone.

Overcrowding in Hwange contributes to the destruction of vegetation. The park can handle 15,000 elephants but currently has about 53,000, Farawo said.

Meanwhile the drought is drying up water sources. The wildlife agency has been drilling wells as deep as 400 meters (yards) to find water for the animals.

“The single biggest threat to our animals now is loss of habitat,” Farawo said. “We have managed to significantly reduce poaching … we were losing hundreds of elephants in past years, but last year we only lost not more than 20 to poaching.”

Zimbabwe has one of Africa’s largest elephant populations. It seeks to be allowed to hunt and export more of them to ease pressure on the animals’ habitat and raise badly needed money for conservation.

Botswana, which also has a large elephant population, this year lifted a ban on elephant hunting, saying the move would help reduce conflict between humans and animals and earn the country much-needed revenue.

But other countries that are parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora have successfully lobbied to limit the sales of elephants, to the dismay of some African countries that say they are struggling with large numbers of the animals.

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