Hundreds reportedly killed in post-polls violence
Unified Tanzania has never experienced unrest on this scale before.
The election on Wednesday was supposed to cement President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s legitimacy as president of the United Republic. According to the story told by the country’s electoral authority, and state-run media outlets, it did exactly that. Although the result is yet to be announced, early official returns point to a landslide victory for the incumbent, who has been in power since her predecessor John Magufuli’s death in office.
The story on Tanzania’s streets is very different. For the past three days, thousands of people have been protesting in major urban centres, including Arusha, Dar es Salaam, Mbeya, Mwanza, and Tunduma. They are being met with a violent response from state security forces. The main opposition party, Chadema, claims 700 people have already been killed.
Some civil society organisations put the number of deaths even higher.
Residents of the largest city, Dar es Salaam, report hearing gunshots throughout the day and seeing military helicopters circling overhead. A dawn-to-dusk curfew has been imposed in the city and soldiers patrol its streets. The country’s internet connection has been cut by authorities, making it difficult to communicate with the outside world – or for protesters to coordinate their actions. The few images that are coming through show unprecedented scenes of public anger: destroyed infrastructure, polling stations vandalised, and police firing tear gas at protesters.
Tanzania, which has been ruled by the Chama Cha Mapinduzi or CCM party since independence in 1961, has never before experienced such widespread and deadly civil unrest.
Activists who spoke to The Continent on condition of anonymity say the protests are being driven by young people – much like the recent protests in Madagascar and Nepal, which resulted in changes of government. The protesters say the election was rigged. The European Parliament agrees: in a statement, parliamentarians described the vote as a “fraud” that “has been unfolding for months”.
In the run-up to the vote, hundreds of opposition supporters were reported to have been detained and assaulted. Chadema was disqualified from the ballot on a technicality and its leader, Tundu Lissu, arrested and charged with treason. Even activists from other countries were targeted. When Uganda’s Agather Atuhaire and Kenya’s Boniface Mwangi visited Dar es Salaam to attend Lissu’s trial, they were reportedly tortured and sexually assaulted by security forces, before being deported.
More protests – and more repression – are expected. The unrest may also expose other faultlines in the country. These include tensions between the police and the military; among rival factions within the ruling party; and between mainland Tanzania and the island of Zanzibar, from which Samia hails.
It's just so heartbreaking and infuriating.
Not just tear gas, I have X-ray evidences of gunshots from casualties I received. Some, innocent even died.