Madar (Dar es Salaam) - Tanzania on Thursday, October 29, 2026, marked one year since the general election in which President Samia Suluhu Hassan won 98 percent of the vote after most of the opposition was excluded, triggering days of protests that security forces brutally suppressed, Africanews reported, citing AFP.
Rights groups and the opposition say thousands were killed, while a government-appointed commission put the death toll at 518.
The Catholic Church held masses on Thursday to honour the victims, while the main opposition party, Chadema, announced a seven-day mourning period, saying in a statement that Tanzania "has become a dictatorship". The streets of Dar es Salaam were quiet with a heavy police presence.
Tanzania has faced criticism from its Western partners over the killings, and the US ambassador warned on X on Thursday that they "will not be swept under the rug". President Hassan, who attended the Russia-Africa summit in Moscow this week, has responded by seeking closer ties with Moscow.
Analysts describe the country as tense, with arbitrary arrests on the rise. The verdict in opposition leader Tundu Lissu's treason trial is due on November 6. Over the past week, another opposition official, John Pambalu, was charged with treason, and a Tanzanian dissident, Twaha Mwaipaya, was abducted in Kenya and remains missing.
The Legal and Human Rights Centre said it was representing around 56 people facing terrorism-related charges. Critics say the presidential commission investigating the violence was set up in "bad faith" to clean up the country's image, while Amnesty International accused the authorities of "weaponising counterterrorism laws to silence critics and instil fear".
