Tanzanian police have stated 45 individuals died in a stampede final week throughout a public viewing of the physique of the nation’s late President John Magufuli earlier than he was buried. Magufuli was revered by many in Tanzania for his pugnacious fashion of management and his marketing campaign towards corruption, though opposition leaders criticized him for his skepticism of the COVID-19 pandemic and repressive insurance policies.
Magufuli was additionally criticised by some African and worldwide well being consultants for discouraging using face masks, vaccinations, and different measures to fight the unfold of the illness. In efforts to view Magufuli’s physique at Uhuru stadium in Dar es Salaam, some individuals climbed a wall which collapsed, inflicting a stampede wherein individuals had been killed, the town’s police chief Lazaro Mambosasa stated Monday night time.
Magufuli was given a hero’s burial wherein his coffin was lowered into the bottom Friday by navy generals adopted by a 21-gun salute in Chato, his hometown within the nation’s northwest. Magufuli was one in every of Africa’s most distinguished COVID-19 skeptics. Even although his authorities introduced on March 17 that he had died of coronary heart failure, opposition leaders cost that he died of issues from COVID-19. Magufuli claimed final 12 months that three days of nationwide prayer had eradicated COVID-19 from Tanzania and discouraged residents from carrying face masks and getting vaccines.
President Samia Suluhu Hassan, the previous Vice President who succeeded Magufuli to develop into Tanzania’s first lady president, on Tuesday, nominated Finance Minister Philip Mpango to be her Vice President. Her nomination was unanimously endorsed by parliament.