Tanzania's president Magufuli dies at hospital

Tanzania's President John Pombe Magufuli has died at a hospital in the port city Dar es Salaam, the country's vice-president Samia Suluhu Hassan announced on Wednesday night.

"It is with great regret that I inform you that today, 17 March 2021, at 18:00, we have lost our courageous leader, President John Pombe Magufuli of Tanzania," Hassan said in a televised address, according to africanews.com.

She said that Magufuli had suffered from chronic atrial fibrillation for more than a decade and died of heart complications.

Magufuli had not been seen in public for more than two weeks, and speculations had risen that he was ill with COVID-19 but senior government officials had repeatedly denied that.