President Yoweri Museveni, a strong advocate of a unified East African states establishment has mourned the second death of a reigning president within less than a year.
“I have, with great sadness, learnt of the death of His Excellency John Pombe Magufuli,” Mr Museveni tweeted Thursday morning.
“We join Tanzania in mourning the passing of a great son of Africa,” he said.
Mr Museveni eulogized Magufuli as a “pragmatic leader who believed in and worked for the economic empowerment of East Africans.”
Magufuli, 61, a man with a double edged legacy that has severally bred divided global opinion was pronounced dead late Wednesday with his death occasioned by a ‘heart condition’ called chronic atrial fibrillation, according to authorities.
His death comes mealy a year after then Burundi president Pierre Nkurunziza died last year on June 8.