NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) – Five people, including four children, died in an alleged stampede during a public display of the body of former Tanzanian President John Magufuli over the weekend, when regional leaders joined with Tanzanians to pay their last respects to the controversial leader.
Magufuli was one of Africa’s most prominent skeptics of COVID-19, and although his government announced that he died of heart failure on Wednesday, opposition leaders and his critics accuse him of dying from complications caused by COVID-19.
Tens of thousands of Tanzanians went to see Magufuli’s body at the Uhuru Stadium, in the country’s largest city, Dar es Salaam, over the weekend.
Suzan Mtua, 30, died with four school-age children from the same family when there was a rush of people wanting to see the body on Sunday, said Heri Mtua, a family spokesman.
“The children demanded that they also attend President Magufuli’s funeral,” he said. “Later that day, we received a phone call late at night from an unknown person using Suzan’s phone.” The caller said the owner of the phone had been taken to a hospital. But her body was eventually found in the morgue, he said.
The children were between 7 and 12 years old.
Hundreds of people who attended the funeral passed out in the crush and officials said they would make a statement on Tuesday about the number of people killed at the national event.
President Samia Suluhu Hassan, who was Magufuli’s vice president and succeeded him, was accompanied by nine African heads of state on Monday for Magufuli’s state funeral.
Among them were the president of Kenya, Uhuru Kenyatta, Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa, Felix Tshisekedi from Congo and Filipe Nyusi from Mozambique, Lazarus Chakwera from Malawi, Azali Assoumani from Comoros, Emmerson Mnangagwa from Zimbabwe, Edgarwgu from Zambia and Lunogkweetsi Masisi Bosnia.
“We regret the loss of our friend, our brother, a hard worker,” said Kenyatta, president of the regional bloc of the East African Community.
“He showed us that, as Africans, we have the potential to free ourselves from dependence on foreigners. That we have the potential as Africans to manage our economies and ensure that our people receive justice, ”he said.
Magufuli has been out of public view since February 27, when he swore on a new chief secretary after his predecessor died with what many speculate is COVID-19. For days, government officials denied that he was ill, claiming that he was busy and that the president had no duty to make public appearances.
Magufuli will be buried on Friday.