Hundreds of people have been killed in Tanzania during three days of protests following Wednesday’s general election, the country’s main opposition party has said.
The death toll varies, and a nationwide internet shutdown is making it difficult to verify the numbers.
While a spokesperson from the opposition Chadema party told news agency AFP that “around 700” people had been killed in clashes with security forces, a diplomatic source in Tanzania told the BBC there was credible evidence that at least 500 people had died.
The government has sought to play down the scale of the violence – and authorities have extended a curfew in a bid to quell the unrest.
The demonstrations have seen mostly young protesters take to the streets in cities across Tanzania to denounce the election as unfair.
They accuse the government of undermining democracy by suppressing the main opposition leaders – one is in jail and another was excluded on technical grounds – thus bolstering President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s chances of winning with her ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party.
Protests continued on Friday, as demonstrators in the port city of Dar es Salaam defied warnings from the army chief to end the unrest.
Foreign Minister Mahmoud Kombo Thabit has described the violence as a “few isolated pockets of incidents here and there” and said “security forces acted very swiftly and decisively to address the situation”.
“We are [also] continuing to receive reports of vandalised properties,” the minister told BBC Focus on Africa, adding that the internet blackout was necessary to stop such vandalism and save lives.
(BBC)
