Posted on Ghanaweb.com - April 20, 2021

These three African presidents have died in the last year. Three might not be so much, but to have recorded the deaths of three sitting presidents on the continent, thatmust surely be too much.

In the last year, starting the count from June 2020, President Pierre Nkurunziza of Burundi (June 2020), President John Magufuli of Tanzania (March 2021), and President Idriss Deby Itno of Chad (April 2021) have all died. And all three sitting presidents left the scene while still at the helm of their respective country's political administration.

Here is how they were each reported:

President Pierre Nkurunziza of Burundi (June 2020)

Burundi's President Pierre Nkurunziza, aged 55, has died after suffering a cardiac arrest, the government says. A government statement says that he was admitted to the hospital on Saturday after feeling unwell. His condition then improved but on Monday he had a cardiac arrest and efforts to revive him were unsuccessful. Mr. Nkurunziza was due to step down from the presidency in August after 15 years in power.

President John Magufuli of Tanzania (March 2021)

John Pombe Magufuli, President of Tanzania has died. The announcement was made by the country’s Vice President Samia Suluhu Hassan on state TV. According to her, Magufuli died of heart complications while being treated at Mzena Hospital in the port city of Dar es Salaam.

Magufuli’s death followed more than a week of intense speculation that he was critically ill with COVID-19 —reports that senior government officials repeatedly denied. He was known as a populist leader who played down the seriousness of the novel Coronavirus pandemic andsteered his country away from democratic ideals.

Vice President Samia Suluhu Hassan in her announcement did not specify the nature of Magufuli’s underlying illness, but said that he had suffered from chronic atrial fibrillation for more than a decade.

She indicated that, flags will fly at half-staff nationwide and that funeral arrangement was underway. John Pombe Magufuli, a trained chemist, was first elected in October 2015 on an anti-corruption platform.

He was initially lauded for his efforts to bolster the economy, stem wasteful spending and upgrade Tanzania’s infrastructure. Tanzania’s late leader was popularly known as “the Bulldozer”. He was accused of muzzling dissent, rolling back freedom of expression and association, and pushing through laws that shored up his Party of the Revolution’s grip on power.
He was 61.

President Idriss Deby Itno of Chad (April 2021)

Chadian President Idriss Déby Itno, who has been in power for 30 years, died on Tuesday from injuries sustained while commanding his army in fighting against rebels in the north over the weekend, a spokesman announced on state television.

"The president of the republic, head of state, supreme head of the army, Idriss Déby Itno, has just breathed his last while defending the territorial integrity on the battlefield . . .

[SNIP]