Namibia’s third secretary to Tanzania Selina Tjihero has passed on after a short illness.
Namibia’s ambassador to Tanzania Tobia Lebbeus confirmed that Tjihero died on Tuesday.
“She did not feel well, and unfortunately we lost her,” the ambassador told The Namibian, the largest daily newspaper in Namibia.
Tjihero, who passed on at the age of 57, was in the country for a diplomatic mission.
While the ambassador didn’t reveal Tjihero’s cause of death, reports indicate that she succumbed to the novel coronavirus disease (Covid-19) that continues to ravage the country amid silence from the Tanzanian government.
High-ranking officials in the diplomatic circles intimated to The Namibian that authorities in the East African country declared pneumonia as the cause of her death following a declaration by President John Pombe Magufuli in June last year that the country was free of the coronavirus.
Read: US Raises Alarm Over Surge In Covid-19 Cases In Tanzania
Medical doctors in the country are reportedly under pressure from authorities to treat people with novel coronavirus symptoms for pneumonia and lung infections.
Still in Tanzania, a second high ranking government official died on Wednesday.
Chief Secretary of the State John William Kijazi passed on at the Benjamin Mkapa Hospital in Dodoma.
It was not immediately clear what led to the death of the veteran politician and diplomat.
Kijazi died just hours after the death of Zanzibar First Vice President Seif Sharif Hamad.
Read Also: Magufuli Claims Tanzanians Vaccinated Against Covid-19 “Brought” Virus Back Home
The president of Zanzibar and Chairman of the Revolutionary Council Hussein Mwinyi announced Hamad’s death on Wednesday afternoon, declaring Seven Days of national mourning. He didn’t reveal the VC’s cause of death.
Hamad, 77, died two weeks after confirming reports that he had been hospitalised over Covid-19.
“It is true I am at Mnazi Mmoja Hospital where I am being treated for Covid-19 and my wife has been isolated at home,” Hamad told the East African via a text message on Monday, February 1, 2021.
Read Also: Zanzibar Vice President Seif Sharif Hamad Dies Weeks After Contracting Covid-19
Hamad, who was appointed Zanzibar’s First Vice President in December last year, became the first person to publicly reveal Covid-19 status since April 2020 when Tanzania stopped releasing coronavirus statistics. Then, there were at least 509 infections and 21 fatalities.
Zanzibar is a semi-autonomous Island in the East African country.
Magufuli recently warned Tanzanians against embracing Covid-19 from western countries. He said steam therapy had proved effective in the fight against Covid-19 in the country.
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