Reuters
—
Police in Tanzania fired tear gas and gunfire Thursday to disperse groups of protesters who returned to the streets a day after a general election marred by violent demonstrations, witnesses said.
Protests erupted in the commercial capital Dar es Salaam and other cities during Wednesday’s vote over the exclusion of President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s two biggest challengers from the presidential race and what demonstrators say is increasing government repression.
Police imposed a nightly curfew in Dar es Salaam, a city of more than 7 million people, after government offices and other buildings were set on fire.
Internet access, which was disrupted during the election period, appeared to have been restored intermittently on Thursday.
Tito Magoti, a Tanzanian human rights activist, told Reuters he had received reports that at least five people had been killed in Wednesday’s protests. A diplomatic source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there were credible reports that at least 10 people were killed in Dar es Salaam.
Reuters could not independently verify these reports, and government and police spokespeople did not respond to requests for comment.
The state-run Tanzania Broadcasting Corporation has begun announcing provisional election results, showing Hassan winning overwhelming majorities in various constituencies.
Dozens of protesters returned to the streets in at least three districts of Dar es Salaam on Thursday, where police fired gunfire and tear gas, according to a Reuters witness.
Other witnesses in the northern cities of Arusha and Mwanza said police fired tear gas on Thursday to quell small protests.
The British government announced that international flights to and from Dar es Salaam airport have been canceled and that Arusha airport and an airport near Mount Kilimanjaro have been closed.
The U.S. embassy advised its citizens to shelter in place and warned that land travel posed significant risks and many international flights were cancelled.
“Our people are rewriting our political culture, if I may use this word with all due respect, from being a cow to being an active citizen,” Maggoti said.
The unrest has been a challenge for Hassan. Since taking office in 2021, Hassan has won praise for easing crackdowns on opposition and censorship that had been intensified under his predecessor, John Magufuli.
But in recent years, rights campaigners and opposition candidates have accused the government of unexplained abductions of its critics.
Hassan ordered an investigation into the abduction report last year, but said no formal findings had been released.
In a post on government spokesperson Gerson Msigwa’s Instagram account, the government announced that the work-from-home order for civil servants will be extended until Friday. He also said people who don’t have an urgent reason to go out should work from home.
Tanzania’s main opposition party, Chadema, had called for protests during an election that also included voting for parliamentarians and officials on the semi-autonomous Zanzibar archipelago.
CHADEMA was disqualified in April for refusing to sign a code of conduct, and its leader Tundu Lissu was charged with treason.
The commission also disqualified a candidate from the opposition ACT Wazalendo, leaving only smaller parties to run against Hassan.
