Summary:

• Tanzania’s former President Ali Hassan Mwinyi has died at the age of 98.
• The death of the former head of State was announced by President Samia Suluhu Hassan.

Former Tanzanian President Ali Hassan Mwinyi, credited with ushering the East African nation into free market economics, has died at age 98, current President Samia Suluhu Hassan said on Thursday in a television broadcast.

Mwinyi succeeded Tanzania’s first post-independence president, Julius Nyerere, who left office in 1985 after 22 years in power.
“On behalf of the government, I would like to convey my condolences to the family, relatives, friends and all Tanzanians for this loss,” President Hassan said.

Mwinyi was credited with introducing free market policies and was in turn succeeded by the late Benjamin Mkapa in 1995.
President Hassan said Mwinyi died in hospital in Dar es Salaam where he was receiving treatment for lung cancer. He had been receiving treatment since November, Hassan said.

Reporting by Nuzulack Dausen; writing by George Obulutsa; editing by Mark Heinrich and Richard Chang