Zanzibar Vice President Seif Sharif Hamad dies

Seif Sharif Hamad, 77, had been undergoing treatment for COVID-19 in a Dar-es-Salaam hospital when he died.

Zanzibar’s 77-year-old First Vice President Seif Sharif Hamad, who had been undergoing treatment for COVID-19 in hospital, has died. “Hamad died this morning at Muhimbili National Hospital in Dar-es-Salaam where he was hospitalised,” Husein Mwinyi, president of the semi-autonomous island region of Tanzania, East Africa, said in a speech broadcast by state-run ZBC television on Wednesday. “The nation has really lost a patriotic leader. I also declare seven days of mourning and the national flag will fly at half-mast.”