Tanzanian Police Dump ‘Severely Tortured’ Activist On Border As State Slides Back Into Authoritarianism

Something is rotten in the state of Tanzania. Despite promising to walk back the worst of former president John Magufuli’s autocratic tendencies, following his death from Covid-19 and her ascension to the top job in 2021, Tanzanian leader Samia Suluhu Hassan has slipped right back into the dictator’s mould. This week, as her fiercest opponent went on trial for treason, foreign activists travelling to Dar es Salaam to support him were detained and deported. Two of them were tortured in police custody and one is still missing.

Something is rotten in the state of Tanzania. Despite promising to walk back the worst of former president John Magufuli’s autocratic tendencies, following his death from Covid-19 and her ascension to the top job in 2021, Tanzanian leader Samia Suluhu Hassan has slipped right back into the dictator’s mould. This week, as her fiercest opponent went on trial for treason, foreign activists travelling to Dar es Salaam to support him were detained and deported. Two of them were tortured in police custody and one is still missing.

A prominent Kenyan activist was dumped at a remote border post by Tanzanian security agents on Thursday, after having been detained for days and tortured at Dar es Salaam Central Prison, alongside his Ugandan colleague. She is still missing.

Photojournalist and opposition politician Boniface Mwangi and Ugandan human rights lawyer Agather Atuhaire were arrested shortly after entering the country on 18 May to attend the first court hearing of opposition politician Tundu Antiphas Lissu. Atuhaire has not been heard from since, but Mwangi said she was tortured at the prison as well.

Lissu, the leader and former presidential candidate of the Chadema party, was charged with treason in early April following a…