NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — 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. Magufuli’s coffin was lowered into the ground Friday by military generals followed by a 21-gun salute in Chato, his hometown in the country’s northwest. Magufuli was one of Africa’s most prominent COVID-19 skeptics. Even though his government announced on March 17 that he had died of heart failure, opposition leaders charge that he died of complications from COVID-19. Magufuli claimed last year that three days of national prayer had eradicated COVID-19 from Tanzania and discouraged residents from wearing face masks and getting vaccines.
