AFRICA/TANZANIA - Appeal for the release of political prisoners

Dar es Salaam (Agenzia Fides) – Political prisoners must be released and the bodies of missing persons returned. This is the joint appeal launched to the Tanzanian government by the embassies of Great Britain, Canada, Norway, Switzerland, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, and the European Union delegation in Dar es Salaam: “to uphold their international commitments to protecting fundamental freedoms and the constitutional rights to access information and freedom of expression for all Tanzanians.”
Following the controversial general elections of October 29, won by incumbent President Samia Suluhu Hassan, violent clashes erupted between protesters and security forces (see Fides, 4/11/2025). As the joint statement released today, December 5, recalls, “credible reports from domestic and international organisations show evidence of extrajudicial killings, disappearances, arbitrary arrests, and concealment of dead bodies.” The signatory governments call on “the authorities to urgently release all the bodies of the dead to their families, to further release all
political prisoners and allow detainees legal and medical support.”
“We further call on the government to address the recommendations made in the African Union - AU and the Southern African Development Community - SADC preliminary elections reports which set out clear shortcomings in the electoral process,” the statement continues, concluding with the hope that “any inquiry must be independent, transparent, and inclusive - bringing in civil society, faith-based groups, and all political actors.”
The Secretary General of the Tanzanian Episcopal Conference (TEC), Father Charles Kitima, has denounced that in Ukonga, Dar es Salaam, police and armed groups stormed hospitals, attempting to prevent medical care from being provided to wounded civilians.
“The police stormed the hospitals and threatened the nurses,” Father Kitima stated on December 2 at a press conference in Dar es Salaam. “The police came and said we should not treat them, we should take them to the morgue,” he added.
The Secretary General of the TEC later stated that doctors and nurses at Catholic hospitals refused to obey police orders and continued treating the victims without hindrance.
Father Kitima asserts that in Catholic hospitals, “we have received bodies of people killed with firearms. The authorities cannot tell us to hide the truth.” On April 30, the Secretary General of the TEC was brutally attacked at the headquarters of the Episcopal Conference in Kurasini, Dar es Salaam, the evening after a meeting of religious leaders from various denominations to discuss the October 29 elections. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides, 5/12/2025)

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