Tanzania pays last respects to late President

Dar es Salaam, March 21 Tanzan from all across the country paid their last respects to late President John Magufuli, who passed away last week due to heart failure.

Newly sworn in President Samia Suluhu Hassan on Saturday led her fellow citizens in paying tributes to Magufuli at the Uhuru Stadium here, Xinhua news agency reported.

Magufuli, 61, died on March at the city's Emilio Mzena Hospital.

Others who paid respects were Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa, the widow of Tanzania's founding president, Maria Nyerere, heads of defence and security forces and senior government officials, including ministers, deputy ministers and permanent secretaries.

They were joined by tens of hundreds of citizens, many of whom broke into tears on seeing the body of the former head of state.

The body of the late Magufuli will lie in state in Dar es Salaam, Dodoma, Zanzibar, Mwanza and Chato from Saturday until March 25 to enable people to pay their last respects before he is buried in his native Chato home on March 26.

Speaking on Friday after she was sworn in as President, Hassan appealed to Tanzan to be patient during this difficult period.

"We should take over from where President Magufuli has accomplished. We should stop pointing fingers at each other. We need to forge ahead as a nation," she said.

President Hassan said Tanzania will remain calm as it has always been.

( With inputs from IANS )

Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor