NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Police on Monday arrested Tanzania’s top opposition figures, whose party has called for protests against what it calls a crackdown on its supporters.
Hundreds of supporters of the country’s main opposition party, CHADEMA, were arrested last month and the party’s secretariat member Ali Kibao was abducted and later found dead with signs of abuse and acid poured over his face. Amnesty International called at the time for an immediate end to “arbitrary detentions of political opposition” in Tanzania.
Authorities said Monday’s arrests were made because party officials ignored a ban on protests.
CHADEMA said in a statement that its chairman Freeman Mbowe and his deputy Tundu Lissu were arrested along with six other party officials at different locations. They added that the planned protests were in line with the constitution and that the police had been informed as required by law.
Mbowe and Lissu were arrested in August and later released.
President Samia Suluhu Hassan, who is serving the term of late President John Magufuli after he died in 2021, has lifted the ban on gatherings, among other measures, but the recent killing of Kibao, which she was quick to condemn, sparked outrage.
Magufuli’s autocratic rule was accompanied by allegations of human rights abuses, including a blanket ban on opposition political rallies.
Tanzania will hold general elections in 2025.