DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania (AP) — At least 518 people died in last year’s postelection violence in Tanzania, which happened amid an internet shutdown, a commission formed to investigate said on Thursday.
Thousands of people were injured in the violence, with more than 800 people having gunshot wounds.
The commission chairman, Mohamed Chande Othman, said that the number of deaths was likely to be higher, because some families buried their loved ones without taking their bodies to morgues.
Tanzania experienced postelection violence on Oct. 29, after young people took to the streets, accusing the government of silencing the opposition, as the country’s main opposition party leader remained in prison for treason and the presidential candidate for the second-largest opposition party was barred from running.
The internet was shut down in the country for days, a move that President Samia Suluhu Hassan later apologized to the diplomatic community for and promised would never happen again.
Hassan was seeking a second term in office after serving out the term of her predecessor, John Magufuli, after he died in office. Hassan won with 97% of the vote, and some international observers said the election fell short of a free and fair vote.
Othman recommended that a further investigation be conducted on the use of firearms, as some of the witnesses told the commission that their loved ones were shot while sitting inside their houses.
Since the violence, 245 people remain unaccounted for, and 39 families reported having seen the bodies of their loved ones in morgues before they later disappeared.
The commission ruled out the presence of mass graves, as alleged by human rights groups.
The commission concluded that the demonstrations weren’t peaceful but were “acts of violence” based on their contravention of laws requiring a 48-hour police notice and because it was an election day, thus denying some citizens the right to vote.
Othman said that the protests were planned and coordinated by people who had been recruited and trained, and violence occurred simultaneously in various locations to confuse the police.
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