Author: Agencies

Tanzania’s image for stability has been “stained” by the unrest that hit the East African nation during last month’s heavily disputed elections, President Samia Suluhu Hassan has acknowledged.

Speaking as she swore in her new cabinet, Samia warned that the violence could “set the country back”.

“We mostly depend on loans from international creditors, but what happened eroded our global credibility,” the 65-year-old president said.

She was declared the winner of October’s presidential poll with 98% of the vote, but the opposition – which was barred from contesting – denounced the election as a “mockery of democracy”.

Lazarus Chakwera, Malawi’s former president and the Commonwealth envoy, is due to arrive in Tanzania to lead reconciliation efforts between the two sides.

Hundreds may have died as security forces crushed the protests under cover of a five-day internet blackout after the 29 October elections, according to the opposition. The authorities are yet to release an official death toll.

Gruesome images and videos of dead Tanzanians have circulated online following the disputed elections, in which key opposition leaders were jailed or disqualified.

The violence was shocking for a nation that had cultivated an image of calm and order for nearly six decades.

At least 240 people were charged with treason after the protests.

Last week, President Samia announced an official investigation into the unrest and urged prosecutors to consider reducing or dropping charges for detained individuals who were not directly involved in the protests.

Samia came into office in 2021 following the death of President John Magufuli – and was initially praised for easing political repression, but the political space has since narrowed.

On Tuesday, she cautioned that her next term could bring economic challenges, noting that securing financial support from international banks may not be easy.

“In the first term, we used to get loans from outside due to our stability and the progress we made. But the stain we brought upon ourselves could now hinder that,” she said.

“For this reason, we must focus on mobilising domestic resources and harnessing our God-given resources,” Samia told her ministers.

One new appointment to the 27-member cabinet is her daughter, Wanu Hafidh Ameir, who was named deputy education minister.

Wanu’s husband, Mohamed Mchengerwa, remains in cabinet taking up the post of health minister. Seven members of the previous cabinet have lost their positions.

On Monday, Commonwealth Secretary-General Shirley Botchwey said Chakwera was to lead “constructive dialogue” during his four-day mission to Tanzania.

He is set to hold consultations with government officials, political party leaders, civil society groups, religious and traditional leaders and diplomatic representatives.

(BBC)

A Tanzanian court has charged at least 240 people with treason following last week’s deadly election protests.

President Samia Suluhu Hassan was declared the winner of the election with 98% of the vote, but the opposition – which was barred from contesting – denounced the poll as a sham.

Security forces clashed with those protesting against the vote and, according to various sources, hundreds were killed. The authorities have downplayed the scale of the violence and maintained the election was free and fair.

Many people were arrested and have now been charged with treason at a court in the economic capital of Dar es Salaam. They were not been asked to enter a plea in court.

According to a charge sheet seen by the BBC, the defendants are accused of inciting demonstrations with the intention of obstructing the election.

The defendants could receive the death penalty if found guilty. However, in Tanzania, the majority of those sentenced to death eventually have their sentence commuted to life in jail.

The East African nation’s last execution took place in the 1990s.

Among those charged on Friday was prominent Tanzanian businesswoman Jenifer Jovin.

She has been accused of encouraging protesters to buy gas masks in order to protect themselves from the police’s tear gas.

The defendants also include social media influencers. The court has been adjourned until 19 November.

During her inauguration speech, President Samia condemned the violence and also blamed foreigners for stoking the unrest.

It has left many Kenyans in Tanzania fearful for their safety after being reportedly targeted in the brutal crackdown – and has prompted Kenya’s Foreign Minister Musalia Mudavadi to ask his Tanzanian counterpart that their safety be guaranteed.

During a phone conversation, Mudavadi said he had told his Tanzanian Foreign Minister Mahmoud Thabit Kombo that concerns would be “addressed through the established diplomatic and consular channels”.

But he reaffirmed “the importance of safeguarding the rights, safety, and dignity” of Kenyans living in Tanzania.

In May, Mudavadi had said that about 250,000 Kenyans lived, worked or did business in Tanzania.

Earlier a Tanzanian police spokesman said the country had intelligence that some foreigners had crossed the border through illegal points “with the intention to commit crimes, including causing unrest”.

Several families in Kenya have expressed concern for the safety of their relatives in Tanzania, following reports that some Kenyans have been killed, injured, or detained, while others are nursing injuries allegedly inflicted by Tanzanian security officers.

John Ogutu, a Kenyan teacher working in Dar es Salaam, was shot dead by police while on his way to buy food, his older sister told the BBC.

But rights groups say his body can not be traced for repatriation and burial.

On Tuesday, a doctor at Muhimbili Hospital in Dar es Salaam told the BBC that vehicles marked “Municipal Burial Services” had been collecting bodies of those believed to have died in the protests.

Kenya’s foreign affairs ministry has now asked relatives of Kenyans who may be in distress in Tanzania to share their names, addresses and emergency contacts.

Reports say many Kenyans, especially those working in private schools, are now fleeing Tanzania after the government warned employers not to engage people without work permits.

Election observers say the polls fell short of democratic standards, but the government insists the election was fair and transparent.

President Samia faced little opposition with key rival candidates either imprisoned or barred from running.

Her inauguration ceremony was held at a military parade ground in the capital, Dodoma, instead of a stadium as in previous years. It was closed to the public but was shown live on state TV.

She initially came into office in 2021 as Tanzania’s first female president following the death of President John Magufuli – and was initially praised for easing political repression, but the political space has since narrowed.

Tanzania and Kenya, which are both part of the Economic African Community, have experienced periodic political and economic tensions.

In May diplomatic relations were strained over Tanzania’s treatment of Kenyans who had gone to Dar es Salaam to observe the treason trial of opposition leader Tundu Lissu.

Several of them were deported while prominent Kenyan activist Boniface Mwangi, along with Ugandan activist Agather Atuhaire, went missing and were later reported to have been tortured and sexually mistreated.

Hundreds of people have reportedly been killed in Tanzania after taking to the streets to protest this week’s presidential election, which saw the increasingly authoritarian incumbent, President Samia Suluhu Hassan, run unopposed for another term after her main challengers were jailed or barred from standing.

Some 700 people have been killed in three days of election protests in Tanzania, the main opposition party said Friday, with protesters still on the streets in the midst of an internet blackout.

“As we speak the figure for deaths in Dar (es Salaam) is around 350 and for Mwanza it is 200-plus. Added to figures from other places around the country, the overall figure is around 700,” John Kitoka, spokesman from the main opposition party Chadema, said.

“The death toll could be much higher,” he warned, saying killings could be happening during the nighttime curfew.

President Samia Suluhu Hassan, whose government is accused of a campaign of repression, had sought to cement her position and silence critics in her party in the virtually uncontested polls, with the main challengers either jailed or barred from standing.

Wednesday’s election descended into chaos as huge crowds took to the streets of Dar es Salaam and other cities, tearing down her posters and attacking police and polling stations, leading to an internet shutdown and curfew.

With foreign journalists largely banned from covering the election and a communications block entering its third day, information from the ground has been scarce.

Chadema, which was barred from the election, said protesters were marching on the city centre in Dar es Salaam on Friday, met by a heavy police and army presence.

A security source told AFP they were hearing reports of more than 500 dead, “maybe 700-800 in the whole country”, while Amnesty said it had received information of at least 100.

Multiple hospitals and health clinics were too afraid to talk directly to reporters.

Local news sites had not been updated since Wednesday, and Hassan has not commented on the unrest.

The only official statement came from army chief Jacob Mkunda late Thursday who called the protesters “criminals”.

Zanzibar ‘robbed’

In Zanzibar, a tourist hotspot, Hassan’s ruling party had already been declared winner of the local vote on Thursday.

The opposition party, ACT-Wazalendo, rejected the result, saying: “They have robbed the people of Zanzibar of their voice… The only solution to deliver justice is through a fresh election.”

A senior party official said ballot boxes had been stuffed, people had been allowed to vote multiple times without ID and that their election observers had been kicked out of counting rooms.

The ruling party (Chama Cha Mapinduzi: CCM) was due to give a press conference later in the day.

At a meeting place for opposition supporters on Zanzibar, there was dismay and fear.

“There has never been a credible election since 1995,” said a 70-year-old man, referring to Tanzania’s first multi-party vote.

None of those interviewed gave their names.

“We are afraid of speaking because they might come to our houses and pick us up,” said one.

Crackdown

Hassan has faced opposition from parts of the army and allies of her iron-fisted predecessor, John Magufuli, since she took over upon his death in 2021, analysts say.

They said she wanted an emphatic victory to cement her position, and the authorities banned the main opposition party, Chadema, and put its leader on trial for treason.

In the run-up to the vote, rights groups condemned a “wave of terror” in the east African nation, including a string of high-profile abductions that escalated in the final days.

Much public anger has been directed at Hassan’s son, Abdul Halim Hafidh Ameir, accused of overseeing the crackdown.

ACT-Wazalendo was allowed to contest the local election in Zanzibar, but its candidate was barred from competing against Hassan on the mainland.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)

Internet services have also been shut down, while several people have been injured during protests.

Internet watchdog NetBlocks reported a “nationwide disruption to internet connectivity” in a statement on X.

Earlier, police in Tanzania’s main city, Dar es Salaam, fired tear gas to disperse opposition supporters protesting against the country’s general election.

Several people have been injured in the confrontation after groups of protesters gathered along major highways to demand electoral reforms and free political activity.

Protesters lit fires on roads, vandalised buses, and caused extensive damage to bus terminals and other public infrastructure.

“We are tired… We want an independent electoral commission so that every Tanzanian can choose the leader they want,” a protester told the BBC.

Reports say that voter turnout in Dar es Salaam was low when polls opened on Wednesday, with many hesitant to show up amid safety concerns.

A police spokesperson had earlier assured the public there was no threat to their safety, saying “people should come out and vote”, according to a message posted on social media.

More than 37 million registered voters are eligible to cast their ballots in the presidential and parliamentary election at over 99,000 polling stations.

Polls opened at 04:00 GMT (07:00 local time) and close at 13:00 GMT (16:00 local time). Results are expected within 72 hours, according to the electoral commission.

The vote comes amid divisions among opposition parties – some boycotting the poll, accusing the process of favouring the ruling party, Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM). This is Tanzania’s seventh general election since the return of multiparty democracy in 1992.

Ahead of the election, rights groups condemned government repression, with Amnesty International citing a “wave of terror” involving enforced disappearances, torture, and extrajudicial killings of opposition figures.

She was initially praised for easing political repression under her predecessor, but the political space has since narrowed, with her government accused of targeting critics through arrests and a wave of abductions.

“Our victory is clear. It must be respected,” Tchiroma said in a speech on his Facebook page from his hometown of Garoua in the north of the Central African state. “The people have chosen. And this choice must be respected.”

Tchiroma, a former government spokesperson and employment minister in his late seventies, broke ranks with Biya earlier this year and mounted a campaign that drew large crowds and endorsements from a coalition of opposition parties and civic groups.

Without naming Tchiroma, Biya’s Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement (CPDM) on Tuesday condemned the self-declared victory as a “grotesque hoax,” adding that only the Constitutional Council is enabled to proclaim results.

It is “an inadmissible act in a state governed by the rule of law,” CPDM spokesperson Jacques Fame Ndongo said in a statement.

The Minister of Territorial Administration also criticized Tchiroma in a separate statement and promised to maintain public order and ensure the protection of people and their property during the electoral period.

Biya, 92, the world’s oldest serving head of state, is seeking an eighth term after 43 years in power. Analysts had expected his control over state institutions and a fragmented opposition to give him an edge in the election, despite growing public discontent over economic stagnation and insecurity.

Tchiroma praised voters for defying intimidation and staying at polling stations late into the night to protect their ballots.

“I also thank candidates who have already sent me their congratulations and recognised the will of the people,” Tchiroma said.

“We have placed the regime before its responsibilities: either it shows greatness by accepting the truth of the ballot box, or it chooses to plunge the country into turmoil that will leave an indelible scar in the heart of our nation,” he warned.

Cameroon’s electoral law allows results to be published and posted at polling stations, but final tallies must be validated by the Constitutional Council, which has until October 26 to announce the outcome.

Tchiroma said he would soon release a region-by-region breakdown of vote tallies compiled from publicly posted results.

“This victory is not that of one man, nor of one party. It is the victory of a people,” he said.

He also called on the military, security forces and government administrators to remain loyal to the “republic, not the regime”.

Minister of Territorial Administration Paul Atanga Nji warned over the weekend that any unilateral publication of results would be considered “high treason.”

Cameroon’s single-round electoral system awards the presidency to the candidate with the most votes. More than 8 million people were registered to vote in the election.