Police in Tanzania have arrested leaders of the country’s main opposition party and hundreds of its supporters in a crackdown that started at the weekend.
Police detained Tundu Lissu, the vice-chair of the Chadema party and a former presidential candidate, as well as the party’s secretary general, John Mnyika, before a gathering in the country’s south-west.
They were held on Sunday in the city of Mbeya, where the party was due to hold a conference on Monday to mark International Youth Day, John Mrema, Chadema’s director of communications and foreign affairs, told Reuters.
The party’s youth wing, Bavicha, had said about 10,000 young people were to meet in the city to mark the day.
Mrema said police also arrested about 400 supporters who were heading to the gathering.
Before his arrest on Sunday, Lissu wrote on X, addressing President Samia Suluhu Hassan: “International Youth Day is celebrated globally. Why are your police stopping Chadema youth on the road and arresting them?”
Rais Samia usilete mambo ya ajabu ajabu ya Magufuli. Siku ya Vijana Duniani inasherehekewa duniani kote. Kwa nini mapolisi wako wanazuia vijana wa CHADEMA barabarani & kuwakamata? Matumizi ya mapolisi yalimshinda Magufuli, & wewe yatakushinda. Fungua barabara vijana waende Mbeya! pic.twitter.com/Y3k9nuLhNj
— Tundu Antiphas Lissu (@TunduALissu) August 11, 2024
Tanzanian police on Sunday announced a ban on the conference, saying the party was planning violent protests.
But Mrema said the meeting was meant to celebrate International Youth Day, and party officials including its chair, Freeman Mbowe, were scheduled to address the gathering.
On Monday, police arrested Mbowe and the youth wing leader, John Pambalu, at an airport in Mbeya, the Chadema party said on X.
Before his arrest, Mbowe had criticised the previous day’s detentions. “We strongly condemn the arrest of our leaders, including leaders of your youth wing, Bavicha, by the police,” he said on X. “We demand the quick and unconditional release of all the party leaders, members and supporters who were arrested in different parts of the country.”
Lissu, who came second in the 2020 presidential election, is expected to contest next year’s poll. He has been arrested numerous times and survived an assassination attempt in 2017, forcing him to live largely in exile in Belgium for five years.
Hassan, since taking leadership of the east African country after the death of John Magufuli in 2021, has embarked on steps to reverse the authoritarian policies of her predecessor. But arrests such as those last year of people planning protests against a port management deal, and these latest ones, have raised questions about her administration’s commitment to human rights.
The latest arrests come less than two years after she lifted a six-year ban on political rallies that had been imposed by Magufuli.
