‘It was like being under house arrest’: Tanzania’s opposition fears mounting crackdown

Tanzania marked its Independence Day on December 9 with a security clampdown. Videos from the economic capital, Dar es Salaam, show completely empty streets.

Other footage shows helicopters flying over several cities across the country.

This came after Tanzania’s prime minister urged citizens to stay home on this day of celebration. In the preceding days, calls to protest on December 9 had circulated widely on social media – demonstrations that the Tanzanian Home Affairs Minister labelled "unlawful" and described as an “attempted coup".

‘There were police at every intersection, ready to intervene’

The FRANCE 24 Observers team spoke to a resident of Dar es Salaam who's a member of an opposition party. For security reasons, we are identifying her only as “Amina”.

“It was a bad day for everyone. It was like being under house arrest. The police were asking for IDs. If you wanted to go out, you had to prove you had a valid reason.

I call it house arrest because every intersection had six police officers ready to intervene, in riot gear and heavily armed. I saw them when I went out for groceries the day before, on December 8. The whole idea was to prevent us from moving or doing anything."

Footage captured by local media outlets corroborates Amina’s account, showing armed police officers conducting identity checks in the economic capital.

“The government is afraid because the movement is starting to organise. December 9 could have turned into a very big movement because of the organisation. There would not be enough members of the police. What happened on October 29 never happened in this generation. The movement wasn’t organised, yet people did go out, and it brought international attention.”

‘We want you out, Mama Samia!’

The October 29 date mentioned by Amina refers to the Tanzanian general elections. The main opposition party, Chadema, was banned from participating, while the Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM or “Party of the Revolution” in English) – which has held power since independence – won by a landslide according to official figures. Incumbent President and CCM candidate Samia Suluhu Hassan was credited with 97 percent of the vote.

In several cities across the country, mass protests erupted on election day as young voters took to the streets to challenge the projected reelection of Hassan. Protesters criticised her government, which is increasingly viewed as authoritarian in its treatment of political opponents and dissenting citizens.

‘It was just a shoot-to-kill exercise’

Authorities responded with violence, cutting off internet access across the country and deploying a massive presence of military and heavily armed police in major cities. This unleashed a bloody crackdown on protesters. Boniface Mwabukusi, president of the Tanganyika Law Society, a legal association that represents people arrested during the protests, told our team:

“We can say it was just a shoot-to-kill exercise. Because some of the people were shot while retreating. Shot in their back, the back of their heads, in their stomach, on their chest.

Also, we have complaints of missing persons. More than 700 people are missing. Their bodies were seen in the morgue. But when their relatives went there trying to retrieve the bodies, they were nowhere to be found.”

Visual analysis corroborates massacre

Analysis of witness footage confirms the deadly crackdown on election protests. In one clip from Dar es Salaam, uniformed Tanzanian police officers are seen kneeling before opening fire. Two ballistics experts identified the weapons as assault rifles, capable of firing only lethal ammunition.

Further footage of those killed in the aftermath of the protests shows injuries consistent only with gunshot wounds.

After reviewing several videos showing casualties from the post-October 29 protests, an analyst from the defence-focused outlet Army Recognition noted:

“Regarding the various images of injuries, the impact on the victims' bodies leaves little doubt as to their cause. In one video showing a leg wound, for instance, the injury is clearly consistent with the trajectory of a projectile.”

Exact death toll unknown

It remains difficult to determine the exact death toll of what appears to be a bloody crackdown on post-election protests, reportedly carried out with military-grade weapons. A report released by Amnesty International on December 19 asserts that at least 80 victims are clearly visible in video footage showing piles of bodies at hospitals in the cities most affected by the unrest.

Mwabukusi told us that these figures are just a fraction of the total casualties:

“This is unprecedented also on the number of casualties. The number of casualties is more than 5,000 and we are receiving complaints of death for about 620 people.

We cannot just say that they were all demonstrators. There was a curfew from October 29, so most people were staying at their houses. Several victims were simply at home or outdoors when they were attacked.”

First-person accounts gathered by Amnesty International and several media outlets suggest that security forces attempted to intervene in hospitals, allegedly seeking to prevent protesters with gunshot wounds from receiving medical care and to conceal the true death toll. Reports indicate that both bodies and living patients were transferred to unknown locations, where they subsequently disappeared. A CNN investigation published on November 21 reveals that ground was broken at a cemetery near Dar es Salaam in early November, pointing to the possible creation of mass graves.

Hassan has announced an inquiry into the killings linked to recent protests. Authorities have yet to release an official death toll.

‘Several of our leaders on the ground have been arrested. Others are in hiding’

However, the crackdown did not end as the protests tapered off during the first few days of November. Mwabukusi said:

“There's a systematic cracking and crashing down on the opposition's or dissenting views. Immediately after the October election, tens of people have been arrested. But also there has been the continued arrest of some opposition leaders, including from the Chadema party, who are still in custody. We've been trying to represent these individuals.”

Deogratias Munishi, Chadema’s international secretary, currently based outside Tanzania, specified:

“The wave of arrests did not start only on October 29. In the build-up to October 29, a wave of arrests and incommunicado detentions was rampant in the whole of Tanzania, specifically targeting members of the Chadema party and other government critics.”

For instance, Chadema leader Tundu Lissu has been in custody since April on charges of “treason”, a crime punishable by death in Tanzania.

“Since October 29, up until now, I will say there is a specific political persecution against members of Chadema, because the arrests are still going on. It is very difficult to provide specific figures, as arrests are being made even as we speak. Several of our leaders on the ground – or rather, some of our female leaders, as they are predominantly women – have been arrested. And those who have not been arrested are hiding within the country or in nearby countries.”

For some opposition figures, detention has proven fatal. An official from the ACT-Wazalendo opposition party highlighted the grim fate of local representative Dafroza Jacob, reporting that she died as a result of her imprisonment.

“She was arrested on November 3. By November 4, she was dead. She had gone to the police station to check on those arrested on election day. The police arrested her. By noon the following day, when she was transported to the hospital, she was already dead. When her family went to see her, they found that the body was severely injured, with her teeth and joints broken. So many areas of her body were tortured very much.”

We reached out to the Tanzanian police for comment. A spokesperson directed us to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which did not respond to our inquiries. We will update this story if and when a statement is provided.