UN says hundreds were killed during protests for Tanzania’s election
The U.N. Human Rights Office stated on Tuesday that it has heard information that security forces are concealing bodies and that it believes hundreds of people were killed in Tanzania amid protests that broke out after last month’s elections.
A request for comment from Reuters was not immediately answered by Gerson Msigwa, a spokesman for the Tanzanian government.
Security forces killed around 1,000 people in the chaos preceding the October 29 vote, which sent the East African nation into its worst political crisis in decades, according to the main opposition party, CHADEMA, and some human rights advocates.
The opposition’s figure has been described as exaggerated by the government.
Although the government of President Samia Suluhu Hassan has stated that the opposition’s death toll is inflated, it has not provided an official death toll tally.
Hassan received about 98% of the vote and was proclaimed the winner of the election last month. Both of her main rivals had been eliminated from the race.
On October 31, the U.N. had previously stated that it had received reports of at least ten fatalities in three cities.
In a statement, the U.N. Human Rights Office stated that unstable security and an internet outage in the days following the election had prevented it from independently verifying casualty estimates.
Nevertheless, it stated: “Information obtained by the U.N. Human Rights Office from different sources in Tanzania suggests hundreds of protesters and other people were killed and an unknown number injured or detained.”
According to reports, security personnel have seized bodies from hospitals and streets and transported them to unidentified sites “in an apparent attempt to conceal evidence,” according to U.N. human rights official Volker Turk, who was also quoted in the statement.
In the past, the government has denied that security personnel used excessive force, claiming that they were reacting to criminal elements’ aggression.
Throughout the protests, hundreds have been charged.
Four top opposition figures, including CHADEMA’s vice chairman, were freed on bail by police on Monday. In relation to the protests, over 300 other persons have been charged, at least 145 of whom are accused of treason.
In April, Tundu Lissu, the leader of CHADEMA, was accused of treason. One of the main causes of the protests was his removal from the presidential ballot.
Hassan’s government has been accused by her opponents of repressing dissent and abducting critics on a large scale. Last week, African Union observers declared that the election did not adhere to democratic norms.
Hassan, who has been in government since 2021, has defended the election’s integrity and denied accusations of her human rights record. She requested an investigation into the suspected kidnappings last year, but the results have not been made public.
