NAIROBI, Kenya Dec 5 – A total of 17 diplomatic missions, including the EU Delegation, the UK, and Canada, have issued a joint statement condemning the violence and demanding the release of bodies following a crackdown on protests in Tanzania after the disputed October 29, general elections.
The missions cited credible evidence of concealment of dead bodies by security forces.
The joint statement calls for the Tanzanian authorities to urgently release all bodies of the dead to their families, release all political prisoners and ensure legal and medical support for detainees.
The foreign mission have further called for a prompt, impartial, and effective independent inquiry into all reported abuses, extrajudicial killings, and disappearances.
Protests erupted across Tanzania’s major cities, including Dar es Salaam and Arusha, after the general elections, which international observers stated fell short of democratic standards.
The main opposition party, CHADEMA, alleged that hundreds to over a thousand people were killed in a brutal crackdown by security forces.
The allegations of body concealment include claims that remains were removed from morgues and secretly disposed of to hide the true scale of the deaths.
Families who identified bodies were reportedly forced to sign false statements regarding the cause of death to retrieve them.
In response, the Tanzanian government has dismissed the reports of mass killings as “slanderous” and “information warfare,” blaming foreign interference for the unrest.
