Samia Suluhu Hassan has made history as the first female president of Tanzania.
Ms Samia has been sworn in by the Chief Justice Ibrahim Juma at State House Dar es Salaam.
She becomes the sixth president of Tanzania following the death of President John Pombe Magufuli on Wednesday, from heart-related complications.
The 61-year-old served as President Magufuli’s deputy since 2015.
The Tanzania constitution stipulates that she should serve the remaining five-year term in the top job.
First elected as Magufuli’s running mate in 2015, she was re-elected last year along with him and, according to the constitution, she should serve out the rest of the five-year term in the top job.
She becomes Africa’s only current female political leader – the Ethiopian presidency is a largely ceremonial role – and joins a short list of women on the continent to have run their countries.
The 61-year-old is affectionately known as Mama Samia – in Tanzanian culture that reflects the respect she is held in, rather than reducing her to a gendered role.
But she was a surprise choice for a running mate in 2015, leaping over several other more prominent politicians in the Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party, which has been in power in one form or another since independence in 1961.
First elected to a public office in 2000, she came to national prominence in 2014 as the vice-chairperson of the Constituent Assembly, created to draft a new constitution. There her calm demeanour in managing occasional outbreaks of pandemonium and the way in which she dealt with some of the more outspoken members earned her plaudits.
–BBC
