Tanzania arrests opposition official travelling to political conference
While President Samia Suluhu Hassan, who plans to seek reelection, says the government is committed to respecting human rights, a recent string of high-profile arrests has thrust her record into the spotlight.
Amani Golugwa, a senior member of Tanzania's main opposition CHADEMA party, was arrested at Julius Nyerere International Airport in the capital Dar es Salaam on Monday, his party wrote on X.
Tanzanian police confirmed his arrest in a post on their Instagram account, writing that Golugwa "has a trend of leaving and returning to the country without following legal procedures."
"Dar es Salaam police special zone is continuing with the investigation on the matter in collaboration with other security organs," the post added.
A government spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Golugwa had been due to represent his party in Brussels at a forum organised by the International Democracy Union, a grouping of centre-right parties that CHADEMA belongs to and which also counts the British Conservatives and U.S. Republicans as members.
"The IDU strongly condemns the unlawful arrest and assault of CHADEMA's (Golugwa)," the organisation posted on X. "Silencing opposition voices violates the core of democracy. We call for his immediate release."
Police arrested Tundu Lissu, CHADEMA's leader and Tanzania's main opposition figure, last month.
Lissu, who was shot 16 times in a 2017 attack and came second in the last presidential poll, was subsequently charged with treason over what prosecutors said was a speech calling upon the public to rebel and disrupt the elections.
He had held several rallies in early April under the slogan "No Reforms, No Election", where CHADEMA demanded significant changes to an electoral process they say favours the ruling party.
Days after Lissu's arrest, the election commission disqualified CHADEMA from participating in the polls over its refusal to sign a code of conduct.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
26 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
A mother and daughter, two, gang-raped then forced to watch husband cut into pieces, a pregnant woman tortured to death in the most unimaginable way - report reveals full horrors of Tigray war's 120,000 rape victims
Survivors of the Tigray war in Ethiopia have bravely spoken out on the systematic violence perpetrated against civilians by both sides in the conflict, alleging harrowing accounts of gang-rape, torture and mutilation during and after the fighting. Tseday, a mother-of-two who had been living in the Oromia region with her husband when the war broke out, told Le Monde that she was stopped and raped by 'soldiers from the federal army' as they fled into exile in the months following the ceasefire. 'They raped me first, then my two-year-old daughter. After that, they killed my husband and cut up his body in front of us. They forced us to watch,' she recounted in a harrowing testimony published on Wednesday. Nigist, a 17-year-old, told the outlet that 'armed men', of no stated affiliation, found her during an invasion of her village in the Kafta Humera area of western Tigray at some point before June 2023. 'They told us to undress, but I resisted,' she recalled. 'That's when they started hitting me, tearing off my clothes. I was raped by several of them. Then I fainted.' Birhan Gebrekristos, an author on the subject, told Le Monde that testimonies from the war described acts of torture including the insertion of sharp objects, screws or pieces of metal into women's wombs. Eritrean soldiers allegedly stuck needles into the womb of one pregnant woman, forcing an abortion, he said. Her child did not survive, and she later contracted a fatal infection as a result. Rights groups have documented horrifying accounts of abuse allegedly perpetrated by both allied Ethiopian and Eritrean forces, and the Tigray People's Liberation Front. Nearly 120,000, or one in ten, women and girls were victims of sexual violence during the conflict, according to Tigrayan regional authorities. The conflict in northern Ethiopia broke out in 2020 after the Tigray regional government rejected the authority of the federal government to postpone an election. In November 2020, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed sent troops into the northern region of Tigray, accusing its governing party, the TPLF, of mounting surprise attacks against military bases in the area. The TPLF denied responsibility. Journalists were barred from entering the region, challenging efforts to verify claims. In February 2021, Amnesty International reported that Eritrean soldiers had killed 'hundreds of civilians' in the city of Axum, Tigray, in November. Reports of mass atrocities began to emerge, with Eritrean forces accused of massacres and systematic rape. The U.S. said violence in Western Tigray was tantamount to 'ethnic cleansing'. A regional official alleged in April 2021 that Eritrean soldiers were holding Tigrayan women as sex slaves amid a wave of reported gang rapes - an accusation roundly denied by Eritrea. Tigrayan forces advanced on neighbouring regions the following June and committed atrocities, including extrajudicial killings and sexual violence. Ethiopian government forces were also accused of widespread and systematic atrocities. A formal peace was agreed on November 2, 2022, but monitoring rights groups continued to report on forcible expulsions of Tigrayans as part of what they called an ethnic cleansing campaign. Survivors of the conflict, speaking to Le Monde, described alleged abuses by military forces months after the war ended. Nigist said she had been on the road for 'months' before reaching a Hiwyet (healing) centre in June 2023. She had fled her village in eastern Tigray when armed men invaded, hiding in a small wood with other young girls. She said she was made to undress and raped by 'several of them' before fainting. She later fled to Mekele, the capital of the Tigray region, before learning of the centre for women who were victims of sexual violence during the war. Le Monde's moving reporting on the aftermath found that many victims have found no support from the authorities in Ethiopia or Eritrea since the war ended. Meseret Hadush, the founder of the Hiwyet Charity Association (HCA) told The Reporter Ethiopia earlier this year that 'over the past two years, we have reached nearly six thousand mothers, providing them with essential first aid and psychological treatment'. The organisation has not received funding from governmental bodies, she said, and relies largely on diaspora donations. She said that the end of the war had not brought about the end of sexual violence in the region, with widespread 'hardship' perpetuating the abuse of victims. 'I still feel like a sense of siege persists, marked by widespread unemployment, a struggling economy, shortages of essential medicines, and visible food scarcity. Although the active combat in Tigray has ceased, the effects of the war still persist.' She observed that female victims are still often burdened by social stigma, and the issue is often concealed 'in an effort to preserve family reputation and honour'. 'Many survivors have lost their marriages, particularly those who became pregnant as a result of sexual violence,' she said. Tseday, who has been seeking help as a survivor of sexual violence, recalled to Le Monde how she fled the Oromia region with her husband when the war broke out. 'As Tigrayans, it was impossible to keep living there,' she explained. The mother-of-two left with her family in June 2023 and journeyed into the Afar region before being stopped by 'soldiers from the federal army'. She said that she and her two-year-old daughter were raped before soldiers 'forced us to watch' them kill and 'cut up' her husband. They were taken to a 'cell' near the town of Samara where she said they stayed for a year. Every day, she said, a soldier abused her until the Tigrayan army liberated them. Human Rights Watch reported in June 2023 that they had spoken to 35 people between September 2022 and April 2023 who alleged more than 1,000 Tigrayans had been held in detention across several towns on the basis of their identity before being expelled. One 28-year-old who was detained in Bet Hintset prison in Humera said that there was 'no medical treatment' at their unofficial detention site. 'If people got sick, they remained there until they die.' 'Many' displaced people told Human Rights Watch after the conflict ended that they did not feel safe to return so long as abusive officials and security forces remained. In October 2022, nearing the end of the conflict, the UN refugee agency had registered 47,000 Ethiopian refugees in eastern Sudan. More than two million people were forced to flee their homes over the course of the conflict. Civilian structures in Tigray, including hospitals and schools, were shelled, looted and destroyed by Ethopian federal forces and regional militias, and by Eritrean armed forces. The war broke out in November 2020 after Ethiopian prime minister Abiy Ahmed sent troops to the Tigray Region, accusing the regional Tigray government, the TPLF, of attacking federal army camps in Tigray. The TPLF denied responsibility and said the reported attack was pretext for an 'invasion'. The TPLF was incensed that Ahmed had postponed a regional election set for August 2020. Ahmed cited the pandemic. Ahmed responded by restricting federal funding to Tigray, inflaming tensions. Ethiopia had only recently emerged from a decades-long war with neighbouring Eritrea. Before its independence, Ethiopia's northern neighbour had been friendly to the TPLF, together overthrowing the despotic Mengistu regime in the late 1980s. But the 2020-2022 war saw Eritrea and Ethiopia attack Tigray from the north and south respectively, squeezing the civilian population. Ahmed only acknowledged Eritrean soldiers had entered Tigray in March 2021, after months of denials. Abiy Ahmed was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019 after settling the long-standing territorial dispute with Eritrea. He ran on a platform of peace and reconciliation, and faced wide criticism over the conflict in Tigray. Journalist Lucy Kassa claimed to have been threatened by the federal government over stories investigating alleged abuses by government forces.
BBC News
3 hours ago
- BBC News
Sadiq Khan says his mission to Africa will boost London business
Three countries and five cities in six days. London's mayor has certainly put a few miles on the clock in the past week in Sadiq Khan is the first mayor of the capital to go on a trade mission there - taking in Nigeria, Ghana and South him were about 30 businesses and representatives from London and Partners - the capital's so called growth agency that aims to attract investment previous mayors Ken Livingstone and Boris Johnson, who went on similar trade missions, he has faced criticism from opponents for spending time out of London when there's plenty to do like previous mayors, Sir Sadiq has defended the trip as a way of promoting the capital to emerging what has he been up to on the whistle-stop tour? The trip started in Nigeria's biggest city, Lagos - and provided a chance to catch up with a number of firms from the city's growing tech sector. The message from Sir Sadiq was a clear one: partner up with London's tech firms - come and do business with perhaps of the drive during Covid when we were constantly told - "London is open".It was a message he repeated as he moved on to Accra in Ghana. Talking to students there he chose to fire a barbed message to his Labour colleagues in government - criticising proposals that could see universities having to pay a levy on international students' Sadiq talked of "the immense value international students bring to London and the UK" - and warned that "closing our country to global talent would be a pointless act of immense economic self-harm". The mayor followed that up with the promise of the first business summit between Africa and London - to be held in the capital next Dickie, the CEO of BusinessLDN, welcomed this pledge and backed the mayor's trip to Africa, saying: "London is a melting pot of communities, workers and businesses from across the globe."The mayor is absolutely right to bang the drum for closer ties with key high-growth markets. Boosting trade and investment links with the likes of Nigeria, Ghana and South Africa will benefit Londoners."As the tour started, the Conservative MP and shadow chancellor Mel Stride had suggested that the mayor should be back in London with "his hand on the tiller", addressing issues like shoplifting that affect small businesses. While BBC London is not on the current mayor's tour of Africa, I have been on similar ventures with Sir Sadiq and his predecessors Boris Johnson and Ken is interesting is the way they are generally greeted - the fact that being mayor of London is seen as a prestigious role - that London is regarded as a genuinely global can often be at odds with how they are viewed by the people in their own city. There have, of course, been mishaps along the way. Livingstone's trip to Venezuela to meet president Hugo Chavez only made it as far as Cuba. And when he was mayor Johnson had to cancel a planned visit to the West Bank after fears of that, the visits will continue whoever is mayor - as will the rows over whether such trade missions bring real value to London.
Telegraph
3 hours ago
- Telegraph
The deadly al-Qaeda affiliate terrorising western Africa
When Amadou Traoré was posted to an army base in western Mali, his family could take comfort that the soldier was far away from the jidahists pillaging towns and killing hundreds. The Kayes region, where he was based, had escaped the relentless terrorist attacks that led the US and UN to label Mali and its neighbours the new global epicentre of terrorism. But that reprieve from bloodshed ended this month. Lieut Traoré's family woke to reports of coordinated attacks in seven towns and cities across the region. 'Automatically, I called his wife: 'Have you heard from Amadou?' recalls his father, Ousmane. At the same time, social media began flooding with pictures of destruction unfolding in an area previously considered safe. As his family spent hours calling the army officer's mobile, his phone rang out and later it went straight to voicemail. 'It was the next day that his wife called me to tell me that she had been contacted to say her husband had died,' the retired teacher told The Telegraph. 'And that's how we learned. We learned and in turn, I informed his mother, I informed his brothers.' Ousmane's son was killed by the same al-Qaeda offshoot rampaging across Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso. It has become one of the world's deadliest militant groups. Some 850 people have been massacred by Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) across the three countries in May alone, according to data from Armed Conflict Location and Event Data (ACLED), a US crisis-monitoring group. The surge in attacks has marked one of the deadliest periods in the Sahel's recent history and heightened fears about the stability of the region at a time when its junta regimes are estranged from former Western military allies. After more than a decade of insurgency bloodshed which has caused mass displacement, there are fears the violence is now pushing toward coastal west Africa. Gen Michael Langley, the top US commander in Africa, said reaching the coast was one of the terrorists' new objectives. 'If they secure access to the coastline, they can finance their operations through smuggling, human trafficking, and arms trading,' he said. Mali's government was able to repel JNIMs' attacks on July 1, but the push into the Kayes region has been described by analysts as a key change in the war. At the same time, there has been an apparent shift from rural guerrilla tactics to a campaign aimed at controlling territory around urban centres and asserting political dominance in the Sahel, they said. South-west Mali not only controls access to the nearby Senegal and Mauritania borders, but also contains much of Mali's gold wealth. Ulf Laessing, director of the Sahel programme at German think tank the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, said Mali still had a better grip on its south-west than elsewhere, but the new JNIM push could stretch government forces. 'JNIM is trying to establish a presence in south-western Mali near the Senegal border, which has been relatively quiet,' Mr Laessing told The Telegraph. 'The region is strategically important as Mali's main supply route for imports from Dakar passes through Kayes and western Mali. 'I think JNIM is trying to establish a new front, and force the army to move soldiers from the north and centre to the south.' Mali has been in deep crisis since early last decade, when Tuareg separatists and radical Islamist factions took over Timbuktu, Gao and other towns across the north. French military intervention had some early success pushing them back, but Paris soon became bogged down in a difficult counter-insurgency mission marred by strained ties with the government. The violence spread into Niger and Burkina Faso and in 2017 JNIM was founded in a merger of jihadist groups including al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). JNIM and its estimated 6,000 to 7,000 fighters has since been the region's strongest militant group and is led by Iyad Ag Ghaly. Ghaly, the former rebel leader in Mali's Tuareg uprisings in the 1990s, led Ansar Dine, the fundamentalist group, as part of a coalition that briefly occupied northern Mali in 2012. His ambition is thought to be to impose Islamic rule across the Sahel. Military coups in Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso have all capitalised on public anger at the failure to improve security in the face of JNIM's advance. Yet while the incoming juntas have kicked out Western allies, particularly the former colonial power France, and turned to the Kremlin for military support instead, the violence continues to worsen. The juntas and Russian mercenaries are meanwhile accused of turning people against them by conducting atrocities as they try to beat back JNIM's advance. Ibrahim Yahaya Ibrahim, of the International Crisis Group, said: 'The parties are fighting a war of attrition, with jihadist groups expanding in rural areas, and government forces and their Russian allies controlling urban centres.' Meanwhile, JNIM's battlefield tactics are reported to have become increasingly sophisticated, and now include the use of anti-aircraft weapons and drones. The group is also thought to gain hefty revenue from raids, cattle rustling, hijacking of goods, kidnappings and taxes on local communities. It has imposed taxes in areas it controls and imposed a form of Sharia law, requiring women to wear veils and men to grow beards. Mr Traore said that the JNIM attacks that had killed his son showed how powerful the group had become. He predicted only some form of negotiation would be able to stop the violence. He said: 'It will take time and in my opinion, it's negotiations, it's dialogue that we must consider. 'Because we're fed up with this war all the time. Attacks here and there, killings here and there and deaths. Really, we've had enough. We've had enough.'
