An initial investigation into the killing of a senior opposition official in Tanzania has found that he was beaten and doused with acid, according to his party.
The body of Ali Mohamed Kibao, a member of the secretariat of the main opposition Chadema party, was found on Saturday, a day after two armed men forced him off a bus heading from Dar-es-Salaam to the northeastern port city of Tanga, party chairman Freeman Mbowe said on Sunday.
“The [preliminary] post-mortem has been done and it is obvious that Ali Kibao has been killed after being severely beaten and even having acid poured on his face,” Mbowe told journalists, adding that a full autopsy report was expected on Monday.
“We cannot allow our people to continue disappearing or being killed like this,” he said.
He added that several other party officials had also gone missing, without giving details.
Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan said she had ordered an investigation into Kibao’s “assassination”.
“Our country is democratic and every citizen has the right to live. The government I lead does not tolerate such brutal acts,” she wrote on X, offering her condolences to his family, friends and party leaders.
Police said they were investigating the “tragic incident”.
Mbowe urged the president to form a judicial commission to investigate abductions and the killing of Kibao, adding that police were among the suspects in the case.
Kibao’s death comes a month after police arrested and briefly detained more than 500 Chadema supporters and senior leaders during a gathering.
Global rights group Amnesty International had described the mass arrests in August as a “deeply worrying sign” in the run-up to local government elections in December and general elections due next year.
Hassan has taken some steps to ease restrictions on the media and opposition since coming to power in 2021.
But rights groups and government opponents have raised fears the recent crackdown on the opposition could signal a return to the oppressive policies of Hassan’s predecessor, the late President John Magufuli.
