Tanzania gives hero’s burial to president who denied coronavirus

Mourners, seen through glass, pay their respects as the body of former president John Magufuli lies in state at Uhuru stadium in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania Saturday, March 20, 2021. Magufuli, a prominent COVID-19 skeptic whose populist rule often cast his country in a harsh international spotlight, died Wednesday aged 61 of heart failure, it was announced by Vice President Samia Suluhu Hassan, who was sworn-in as the country’s new president on Friday. (AP Photo)

Tanzania has given a hero’s burial to President John Magufuli, who died earlier this month after denying that Covid-19 was a danger to the east African country.

The coffin was lowered into the ground by military generals followed by a 21-gun salute in Chato, his home town in the country’s north west.