Abducted Tanzania opposition figure found dead

DAR ES SALAAM:

A member of the Tanzanian opposition party Chadema has been found dead after being abducted, beaten and doused with acid, party leader Freeman Mbowe said Sunday.

Ali Mohamed Kibao, a member of Chadema's national secretariat, was forced off a bus at gunpoint on Friday by suspected security agents as he was travelling from Dar es Salaam to the northern port city of Tanga, party officials said.

His body was found in the Ununio waterfront district of Dar es Salaam on Saturday night.

The incident comes less than a month after Mbowe, his deputy Tundu Lissu and other Chadema leaders were briefly detained in a mass roundup that raised concerns about the shrinking democratic space in Tanzania.

"The postmortem has been conducted (witnessed by) Chadema lawyers and it is clear that Kibao was severely beaten and had acid poured on his face," Mbowe told reporters.

"We cannot allow our people to continue disappearing or being killed like this," he said. "The lives of Chadema leaders are currently at risk."

He said several other party officials had also gone missing, without giving details.

Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan said she had learnt of Kibao's murder "with great sadness" and extended her condolences to his family, friends and party leaders.

"I have directed the investigative authorities to provide me with a detailed report on this extremely grave incident and similar cases urgently," she said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

"Our country is democratic, and every citizen has the right to live. The government I lead will not tolerate such acts of cruelty."

Kibao was a retired military intelligence officer who had worked with other opposition parties as well as the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) before joining Chadema.

Chadema's director of communication and foreign affairs John Mrema told AFP that Kibao was 69 and had been a party member since 2008.

Police said in a statement they were continuing to investigate "this tragic incident" and vowed that those responsible would be brought to justice.

Rights groups and government opponents have raised fears the recent crackdown on the opposition could signal a return to the oppressive policies of Hassan's predecessor, the late president John Magufuli.

The arrests came despite Hassan vowing a return to "competitive politics" and easing some restrictions on the opposition and the media, including lifting a six-year ban on opposition gatherings.

Amnesty said the mass arrests in August were a "deeply worrying sign" in the run-up to local government elections in December 2024 and general elections due late next year.

Mbowe himself was also arrested in July 2021 ahead of a party meeting to demand constitutional reforms before being freed the following March after prosecutors dropped terrorism charges against him.

Lissu, who ran unsuccessfully for the presidency in 2020, has also been arrested multiple times and survived an assassination attempt in 2017. He returned to Tanzania, after living largely in exile for more than five years, following Hassan's decision in 2023 to lift the ban on opposition. AFP