from ALLOYCE KIMBUNGA in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania
Tanzania Bureau
DAR-ES-SALAAM, (CAJ News) – A MEETING between the presidents of Mozambique and Tanzania is a broadening of ties between one country that is emerging from post-election repression and another that is intensifying oppression ahead of polls.
Mozambique’s President Daniel Chapo is in Tanzania on a three-day state visit since Wednesday at the invitation of her counterpart, Samia Suluhu Hassan.
Political analyst and human rights defender, Prof. Adriano Nuvunga, noted that in ordinary times, this might pass as routine diplomatic business.
However, these are not ordinary times as the visit arrived amid a wave of state-sanctioned repression in both countries.
Mozambique is reeling from the deadly violence that rocked the country since October last year when Chapo, of the ruling Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (FRELIMO), was announced the winner.
Post-election protests over vote-rigging allegations left over 300 people dead as police opened live ammunition against protesters.
The situation has eased but tensions remain.
Nuvunga bemoaned that in Mozambique, civic space was shrinking, with allegations of human rights defenders persecuted, journalists harassed and activists threatened.
In Tanzania, Hassan’s government is accused of cracking down on the opposition as elections loom, in October.
“When presidents meet in this climate and refuse to address these abuses, they aren’t engaging in diplomacy, they’re enabling authoritarianism. Bilateral visits like this, devoid of accountability, only normalise impunity and embolden oppressive regimes to tighten their grip on power,” said Nuvunga.
While the international human rights spotlight has dimmed on Mozambique, it is now firmly on Tanzania.
Tundu Lissu, the chairperson of the country’s main opposition party, Chama cha Demokrasia na Maendeleo (CHADEMA, or The Party for Democracy and Progress), has been in detention since April 9 on charges of treason – which carries the death penalty – alongside two other offences under the country’s cybercrime laws.
This stems from his call for the populace to boycott elections if they are to be held without reforms. Chadema has been disqualified from running in the general election after it declined to sign an electoral code of conduct.
CHADEMA’s deputy chairperson, John Heche, and secretary general, John Mnyika, were among those arrested but were released later the night Lissu was arrested.
Police are accused of assaulting party supporters on the day as well as in court premises at one of the Lissu hearings.
Last week, unknown people violently attacked outspoken Catholic leader, Fr Charles Kitima, in the capital Dar es Salaam.
It is speculated his ordeal, which left him hospitalised, is because of his criticism of government policies.
Kitima is the secretary-general of the Tanzania Episcopal Conference (TEC).
Last week, an activist was abducted in southern Songwe, prior to his assailants forcibly entering his home and assaulting him. He has been abducted several times before.
“I hold President Samia and her government responsible for these heinous acts of terrorism,” Lissu stated from Ukonga prison.
He has threatened to commence a hunger strike if he is not brought to court.
The court hearing is set for May 19.
There has been outrage locally and abroad.
Amnesty International: Tanzania is mobilising citizens to petition Hassan.
The European Parliament this week called for the immediate and unconditional release of Lissu and urged the Tanzanian government to end all arbitrary arrests and attacks against opposition leaders and government critics ahead of the general elections.
It called for investigations into the recent disappearances of government critics and opposition supporters as well as any other allegations of police abuse and misconduct, to ensure that those responsible are to be brought to justice in fair trials without recourse to the death penalty.
In 2025, Freedom House downgraded Tanzania’s ranking in its Freedom Index from “partly free” to “not free”.
Last year, United Nations human rights experts called on Tanzania to end the human rights violations against opposition political party members, civil society organisations, journalists and human rights defenders.
Hassan (65), the East African country’s first female president, came to power in 2021, succeeding John Magufuli. She initially repealed some repressive policies of Magufuli but critics accuse her of retaining an iron fist to consolidate her grip on power.
Her Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM, Party of the Revolution) has governed uninterrupted for almost 64 years but faces a major threat like other liberation movements lately as the electorate increasingly becomes composed of youth born under independence.
– CAJ News