BREAKING: Tanzanian President John Magufuli is dead – VP Suluhu says

Tanzanian President John Magufuli has died, the country’s vice president has announced on state television, after weeks of uncertainty over his health and whereabouts.

In a televised address to the nation late on Wednesday, Vice President Samia Suluhu said the 61-year-old president had died of a “heart condition”, which he has suffered for a decade, 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. But he rushed to hospital again on March 14 after feeling unwell.

A vocal COVID-19 sceptic, Magufuli had last appeared in public on February 27and top government officials had denied that he was in ill health, even as speculation swirled online that he was sick and possibly incapacitated from illness.