‘Hundreds dead’ in Tanzania post-election violence, opposition says

Tanzania’s main opposition said hundreds had been killed in three days of election protests, with the country still under an internet blackout on Friday and the government denying any use of “excessive force”.

A security source and diplomat in Dar es Salaam both said that deaths were “in the hundreds” as protests continued on Friday.

President Samia Suluhu Hassan had sought to cement her position and silence critics in her party with an emphatic win in Wednesday’s election, in which her main challengers were either jailed or barred from standing.

But the vote descended into chaos as crowds took to the streets of Dar es Salaam and other cities, tearing down her posters and attacking police and polling stations, leading to an internet shutdown and curfew.

Foreign Minister Mahmoud Thabit Kombo said his government had “no figures” on any dead.

“Currently no excessive force has been used,” he said in an interview with Al-Jazeera. “There’s no number until now of any protesters killed.”