Tanzania Detains Opposition Party’s Top Leaders

Tanzania’s main opposition party said on Monday that the police had detained its top leaders and dozens of others ahead of a planned demonstration — the second such crackdown in two months by the government of President Samia Suluhu Hassan, who came to power promising a political opening.

Among those detained were Tundu Lissu, the 2020 presidential candidate for the opposition party, Chadema, and Freeman Mbowe, the party’s chairman. A police statement said they and a dozen others had been “arrested and questioned” for defying a protest ban. The party said about 50 people had been detained, in Dar es Salaam, the commercial capital of the country.

Ms. Hassan, who took office in 2021 after her predecessor died, had pledged to break from his autocratic style. The country’s first female leader, Ms. Hassan met with Vice President Kamala Harris in Washington in 2022 and again last year during Ms. Harris’s visit to Tanzania, which was part of efforts to promote democracy and women’s empowerment in Africa.

But the killing earlier this month of an opposition official, Ali Mohamed Kibao, and a series of apparent abductions have kindled fear and consternation in the East African country. Activists say these events have added to questions about the democratic credentials of the nation’s pathbreaking president as local elections approach in November, and a presidential vote looms next year.

“We don’t know exactly what message they want to send us, or if they’re trying to create fear among the people so that, in the upcoming local government election, our members won’t participate because of fear,” said John Mrema, director of communications and foreign affairs for the Chadema party, which organized Monday’s aborted rally.

“I’m feeling afraid because I’m the spokesman of the party, and I have been advised to find a safe place,” Mr. Mrema added.