Chaos erupted on Sunday, March 21 at Uhuru Stadium in Dar es Salaam as thousands of people thronged the stadium to pay their last respect to their late President John Pombe Magufuli.
During the incident, the security team and the first-aid personnel had a rough time trying to control the huge crowd, resulting in a stampede as everyone wanted to enter the stadium.
As a result, one family in Dar es Salaam lost five of its members who were part of the victims.
In a video shared by Mwananchi Digital, the family narrates that four children are among the five, who left the house early in the morning in order to have access to the seats.
They were accompanied by their aunty, who the family used her phone to check on them.
“When they arrived, we communicated and they told us that they arrived safely and that they managed to secure seats and from that, we knew that everything was okay,” one of the family members said.
She continued, “At around noon, my in-law tried to reach them through the phone to find out how they were faring on and if the event has been concluded but the phone did not go through and the messages were not being delivered…after a while, someone called and informed us that the lady had fainted.”
They said that after an hour, they went to Kinondoni District Commissioner to where they found the items of the deceased.
The family is mourning and trying to accept the reality that hit them.
Magufuli was pronounced dead on March 17 after developing heart complications at Mzena Hospital.
He will be laid to rest on Friday March 26 in his hometown of Chato in Geita Region.
Magufuli was the fifth president of Tanzania who was serving his second term in office.
He becomes the first president of Tanzania to die while in office.
On Monday, thousands of Tanzanians gathered in Dodoma for a farewell ceremony to Magufuli, which was attended by several head of states from Africa, including President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya who is also the East Africa Community chairperson.