A chilling video seen by Y News captures a man commenting on the empty streets in Tanzania: “We’re locked inside like rats.”
Streets that would normally be buzzing ahead of Independence Day are deserted — a silence enforced by a government order that all citizens stay indoors and all planned protests be scrapped.
The Tanzanian government banned nationwide Independence Day demonstrations earlier this week, deepening fears over shrinking civic space in a country already under scrutiny for its post-election crackdown.
The protest ban comes on the back of October’s disputed elections, where President Samia Suluhu Hassan was declared the winner with 98pc of the vote after opposition contenders were either jailed or struck off the ballot.
Rights groups say more than 1,000 people were shot dead over three days of unrest that followed the vote — the kind of figures the government has neither confirmed nor denied. To date, authorities have not released any official tally of those killed, disappeared or detained.
According to the UN, the state has escalated its campaign against critics. Seif Magango, spokesperson for the UN human rights office, warned in Geneva that dozens of academics, opposition politicians and civil society leaders have been arrested since mid-November. Some, he said, were seized by unidentified armed men.
Rising International Pressure
The UN has called the protest ban “disproportionate” and urged Tanzania to uphold freedoms of expression, assembly and association.
Magango reminded security forces that firearms should never be used to disperse crowds except as a last resort against an imminent threat.
Diplomatic pressure is also growing. Seventeen Western embassies, together with the EU delegation, jointly expressed “deep regret over the tragic loss of lives” and urged security forces to act with restraint. Tanzania, meanwhile, has instructed foreign envoys to remain silent on the violence.
The government says it has launched an investigation into the election-related bloodshed, but the UN insists any probe must be impartial, transparent and protective of witnesses.
