John Magufuli, Tanzania’s covid-denying president, dies aged 61

WHATEVER THE true cause, the death of John Magufuli, Tanzania’s president, will almost certainly not be listed among the country’s covid-19 statistics. That has nothing to do with the results of any tests for the virus that may have been performed in the weeks since he was last seen in public on February 27th. It has everything to do with Mr Magufuli’s policy of denying the existence of an illness that has ravaged Tanzania and the ranks of its government. Many believe it has claimed the life of its president at the age of 61. His death from “heart complications” was announced on March 17th.

Officially Tanzania, with nearly 60m people, has suffered just 509 cases of covid-19 and 21 deaths from it. Or, at least, that was the case almost a year ago, when the country stopped releasing official data. At the time Mr Magufuli said he did not trust his country’s statistics because the national laboratory was “releasing positive, positive, positive results”.