NAIROBI, Kenya (RNS) — Some in Tanzania are facing a death sentence for demonstrating against what they see as flawed elections. Some who have been arrested await word on their fate. Hundreds of others died in the protests, according to news reports in recent days, leaving hundreds more to mourn and bury their relatives or to desperately search for the missing.
As Tanzanians headed to the polls on the morning of Oct. 29, youth in Dar es Salaam came out into the streets protesting alleged electoral irregularities, suppression of opposition parties and police harassment, mirroring a mobilization of Generation Z youth against authoritarian regimes in other African cities. The protests quickly spread to other cities and towns. Security forces responded with brutal force, lobbing tear gas at the demonstrators and shooting with live bullets.
On Nov. 1, it was announced that President Samia Suluhu Hassan had garnered 97.66% of the votes cast, defeating 16 candidates from smaller parties. As Hassan was sworn in on Nov. 3, the crackdown against the protests continued, and people were arbitrarily arrested or simply disappeared. Some 300 people have been charged with treason, an offense that carries a death sentence.
Some of those who died in the crackdown, according to Catholic Archbishop Jude Thaddaeus Ruwa’ichi of Dar es Salaam, were not protesting, but were shot inside their houses by government agents.
Speaking in D …