2,000 killed in election violence, says Tanzania opposition

Tanzania’s main opposition party on Thursday said more than 2,000 people were killed in a week of election violence, calling for sanctions against officials it accused of crimes against humanity. President Samia Suluhu Hassan was declared the winner of the October 29 polls with 98 per cent of the vote, but her government was accused […]

Tanzania’s main opposition party on Thursday said more than 2,000 people were killed in a week of election violence, calling for sanctions against officials it accused of crimes against humanity.

President Samia Suluhu Hassan was declared the winner of the October 29 polls with 98 per cent of the vote, but her government was accused of rigging the polls and overseeing a campaign of murders and abductions of her critics that sparked nationwide protests and riots.

Opposition party Chadema’s deputy chairperson, John Heche, told reporters that Tanzania witnessed “mass killings of more than 2,000 people and over 5,000 injured in the space of just one week”.

Previous opposition counts had put the deaths at more than 1,000. The government has not given a death toll.

Heche urged the international community to “impose sanctions on all individuals involved in planning and executing these acts of criminality and crimes against humanity”.

In a live online broadcast, he said those responsible should be subjected to travel bans, including restrictions on their families.

Hassan last week justified the killings, saying it was necessary to prevent the overthrow of the government.