Tanzania has long promoted unity and social harmony as a cornerstone of its politics, using that image to develop tourism as a pillar of its economy and to secure its reputation as a peaceful East African nation.
That reputation was badly tarnished last month after a deadly presidential election.
Security forces opened fire and killed many protesters demonstrating against the exclusion of opposition parties on the ballot. At least 240 people were arrested and charged with treason.
The violence has not only shaken the nation profoundly, but also appears to have backfired on the government. Senators in Washington have called for a re-examination of U.S. ties to Tanzania. The U.N. human rights chief, Volker Türk, last week demanded Tanzanian authorities investigate the killings and said he had heard reports of security forces taking bodies to undisclosed locations.
The United Nations has said it has received reports that hundreds were killed, though estimates are difficult to assess, in part because the government imposed an internet blackout and then warned against sharing videos of the unrest.
President Samia Suluhu Hassan was declared the overwhelming winner of the Oct. 29 election by the country’s electoral commission, but observers from the African Union said the poll failed to meet democratic standards.
The main opposition party, Chadema, was barred from the ballot. Its leader, Tundu Lissu, has been charged with treason and is on trial. A second opposition party was also excluded from the contest.
The government has defended the security forces and said that the death toll has been exaggerated by the opposition. In her first public comments about the events, Ms. Hassan, a politician from Zanzibar who assumed the presidency in 2021, struck a conciliatory tone.
Speaking to Parliament on Friday, she said she was deeply saddened by the violence and offered condolences. The government would set up a commission to investigate the root cause of the violence, she said.
She also directed that charges against young people who had participated in the protests be withdrawn if they had been “merely swept along by the tide” and said that the state would work toward reconciliation and peace.
“There are times when young people follow criminal acts out of excitement or peer pressure,” she told Parliament, appealing to young people to join the development of the country and saying she spoke as a mother and custodian of the nation.
It was unclear whether the speech would mollify those angered by the violence, but it was swiftly rejected by Chadema, which does not recognize Ms. Hassan as a legitimately elected leader.
The party demands an international inquiry into the violence and the release of Mr. Lissu and all those who have been detained for political reasons since the vote, said Chadema’s deputy leader, John Heche, in an interview.
“We need those who killed a lot of people to be brought to justice,” said. Mr. Heche, who was detained for 14 days after the election and has been charged with conspiracy to commit terrorism. He was released on bail last week and said he had been held in solitary confinement and denied medical treatment.
Chadema, which wants democratic reforms and a new Constitution, called for a boycott of the election but had not publicly called for protests, Mr. Heche said. The party plans to meet in the coming weeks to decide next steps but, he said, the “answer is democracy.”
The election was held against a backdrop of years of what human rights groups have called growing repression against opponents of the ruling party. In the months before the vote, a wave of activists, journalists and government critics, including the prominent Tanzanian diplomat, Humphrey Polepole, disappeared and remain missing.
Ms. Hassan’s ruling party, Chama Cha Mapinduzi, or Party of the Revolution, has not lost a national vote since the advent of multiparty democracy in Tanzania in the 1990s.
Senator Jim Risch, the Foreign Relations Committee’s chairman, and Senator Jeanne Shaheen, the committee’s ranking member, on Thursday called for a reassessment of U.S. relations with the country.
“Tanzania’s ruling party has created an environment of fear that challenges the security of the country and neighboring countries,” they said in a statement.
But it is unclear how much effect their bipartisan statement would have in Washington, given that the White House has rowed back on efforts to promote democracy in Africa.
Catholic Archbishop Jude Thaddeus Rwa’ichi of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania’s financial capital, said that people had been killed indiscriminately. During a Mass on Sunday, he called the violence an “abomination before God.”
The protests are the latest example of young Africans demanding change and better economic opportunities in nations with large youth populations. In Kenya, Morocco and Madagascar, where presidents were forced from power, some protesters have rallied under the Gen-Z banner.
But there is little immediate sign that African institutions will press Tanzania to reform.
While some on social media have called for further protests on Dec. 9, the ruling party has a firm grip on security forces, the courts and the media, so it’s in a strong position to resist external pressure.
Matthew Mpoke Bigg is a London-based reporter on the Live team at The Times, which covers breaking and developing news.
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