{"id":236194,"date":"2025-10-31T15:58:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-31T15:58:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/236194\/"},"modified":"2025-10-31T15:58:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-31T15:58:07","slug":"about-700-killed-in-tanzania-election-protests-opposition-says-tanzania","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/236194\/","title":{"rendered":"About 700 killed in Tanzania election protests, opposition says | Tanzania"},"content":{"rendered":"

About 700 people have been killed during three days of election protests in Tanzania<\/a>, the main opposition party has said.<\/p>\n

Protests erupted on election day on Wednesday<\/a> over what demonstrators said was the stifling of the opposition after the exclusion of key candidates from the presidential ballot.<\/p>\n

John Kitoka, a spokesperson for the Chadema opposition party, told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that hundreds of people had been killedsince then.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs we speak, the figure for deaths in Dar [es Salaam] is around 350 and for Mwanza it is 200-plus. Added to figures from other places around the country, the overall figure is around 700,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He added that the toll could be much higher because killings could be happening during a night-time curfew that was imposed from Wednesday.<\/p>\n

A security source told AFP there had been reports of more than 500 dead, \u201cmaybe 700-800 in the whole country\u201d.<\/p>\n

Amnesty International said it had received information that at least 100 people had been killed.<\/p>\n

Kitoka said Chadema\u2019s numbers had been gathered by a network of party members going to hospitals and health clinics and \u201ccounting dead bodies\u201d.<\/p>\n

He demanded that the government \u201cstop killing our protesters\u201d and called for a transitional government to pave the way for free and fair elections. \u201cStop police brutality. Respect the will of the people which is electoral justice,\u201d Kitoka said.<\/p>\n

The Guardian has approached the government for comment.<\/p>\n

People hold rubber bullets and teargas canisters after a post-election protest. Photograph: Thomas Mukoya\/Reuters<\/p>\n

Tanzanians went to the polls on Wednesday in an election in which President Samia Suluhu Hassan was expected to strengthen her grip on the country amid rapidly intensifying repression and the exclusion of key opponents from the presidential contest.<\/p>\n

In April, Tundu Lissu, the vice-chair of Chadema, was arrested and charged with treason and cybercrime offences<\/a>. His party, which had led calls for a boycott of the election unless electoral systems were reformed, was later disqualified from participating.<\/p>\n

Last month, Luhaga Mpina, the leader of ACT-Wazalendo, another opposition party, was also disqualified, meaning Hassan will contest only lesser-known opponents from minor parties.<\/p>\n

Government critics were also abducted and arrested in the run-up to the election.<\/p>\n

Since Wednesday, huge crowds of protesters have attacked police and destroyed property belonging to businesses connected to the ruling party.<\/p>\n

The demonstrations were focused mainly in the port city of Dar es Salaam but have since spread across the country.<\/p>\n

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The government reacted by imposing a curfew. Internet disruption was also reported, with the global monitor NetBlocks saying it was countrywide.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, the army chief, Gen Jacob John Mkunda, condemned the violenceand called the protesters \u201ccriminals\u201d. He said security forces would try to contain the situation.<\/p>\n

Demonstrators on Friday faced a heavy police and military presence.<\/p>\n

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said it was \u201calarmed\u201d by the deaths and injuries in the protests, noting it had received reports that at least 10 people had been killed by security forces.<\/p>\n

The OHCHR said it had received credible reports of deaths in Dar es Salaam, in Shinyanga in the north-west and Morogoro in the east, with security forces firing live ammunition and teargas to disperse protesters.<\/p>\n

An OHCHR spokesperson, Seif Magango, said the office had urged security forces to refrain from using unnecessary or disproportionate force and for protesters to demonstrate peacefully.<\/p>\n

Tito Magoti, a human rights lawyer, said it was \u201cunjustified\u201d for security agencies to use force, adding that the country\u2019s president \u201cmust refrain from deploying the police against the people\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cShe must listen to the people. The mood of the country is that there was no election \u2026 We cannot vote for one candidate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Agence France-Presse contributed to this story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"About 700 people have been killed during three days of election protests in Tanzania, the main opposition party…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":236195,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-236194","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236194"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236194\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/236195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}