Leaders arrested following police chief’s warning of powerful measures to dam protest.
Police have cracked down on a deliberate protest towards the federal government organised by Tanzania’s foremost opposition celebration.
The leaders of Chadema have been arrested on Monday, the celebration stated. Additional arrests have been made on the streets of the Magomeni space of the capital Dar-es-Salaam the place protesters have been gathering for a rally towards alleged killings and abductions of presidency critics.
The crackdown extends fears of renewed political repression within the East African nation forward of upcoming native elections and subsequent 12 months’s nationwide vote.
Video footage posted on X by Chadema confirmed police arresting the celebration chairman, Freeman Mbowe, as he arrived “to guide a peaceable protest”.
A separate put up confirmed police outdoors the house of deputy chairman Tundu Lissu earlier than he was taken into custody.
Police stated that they had arrested 14 individuals, together with Mbowe and Lissu, for defying a prohibition on the protests.
Upfront of those arrests, the police have been seen blockading the properties of each celebration leaders.
Lissu, who survived an assassination try in 2016 regardless of being shot 16 occasions, earlier wrote on social media platform X that three police autos stuffed with officers in riot gear have been outdoors his home.
“They’ve knowledgeable me I’m directed to be taken to the Regional Crimes Officer. I’m on the point of go,” he stated.
Over the weekend, Dar-es-Salaam police chief Jumanne Muliro had warned that the deliberate rally would breach the peace and that his officers would take strict motion to stop it.
Riot police with water cannon have been deployed throughout key areas of the town since Saturday.
Chadema has accused the federal government of President Samia Suluhu Hassan of returning Tanzania to the repressive ways of her predecessor, John Magufuli.
Hassan took over in March 2021 following Magufuli’s sudden death and initially appeared to sign a extra open democracy, reversing restrictions on opposition rallies and the media.
However Chadema now accuses safety forces of being behind the disappearance of a number of members and the killing of Ali Mohamed Kibao, a senior celebration official who authorities stated was doused with acid and overwhelmed to demise final month.
In a speech broadcast on X on Sunday, Mbowe insisted that the deliberate protest could be peaceable.
“We’re neither carrying any weapons nor planning to violate the peace as some individuals allege,” he stated. “We have now seen the deployment of armed cops within the metropolis however we’re able to face them.”
When Chadema final tried to carry a rally in August, police arrested a whole bunch.
Rights teams and Western governments, together with the US, have criticised the crackdowns as “antidemocratic”.