Tanzania urges citizens to stay home ahead of expected protests

NAIROBI, Dec 8 - Tanzania’s government warned on Monday that protests planned for Tuesday would be unlawful and amounted to an attempted coup, as security forces deployed heavily in major cities.

Activists and the opposition have called for anti-government protests on Tuesday, the anniversary of mainland Tanzania's independence from Britain, following the violent suppression of demonstrations during elections in October in which the United Nations believes hundreds were killed.

"Those protests are not permitted and are unlawful ... that is not a protest, that is a coup," Home Affairs Minister George Simbachawene said in a media briefing in Tanzania's commercial capital Dar es Salaam. "Our security organs will handle them."

The office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights urged authorities to respect fundamental rights ahead of the planned demonstrations, calling for the lifting of a nationwide ban on protests and warning against use of excessive force.

"Security forces must allow Tanzanians to exercise their rights to peaceful assembly and expression and refrain from using force to disperse non-violent gatherings," a spokesperson for the U.N. office, Seif Magango, said in a statement on Friday.

APPEAL TO STAY HOME

The October protests were fuelled by the exclusion of leading opposition candidates from a presidential election in which incumbent Samia Suluhu Hassan was declared the winner with nearly 98% of votes.

The government has acknowledged people were killed, without providing its own death toll, but it has rejected allegations that police used excessive force.

In a video posted on X on Monday, Prime Minister Mwigulu Nchemba urged people to stay home, without directly referring to the expected protests. 

"The government advises all citizens who will not have an emergency on December 9 to use the day for rest and celebrate it at home, except for those whose work duties require them to be at their work stations,” he said.

The police said on Friday that any demonstration would be illegal since authorities had not received any formal notification from organisers. 

Heavy deployments of police and army were visible on Monday along major roads in Dar es Salaam and the northern city of Arusha, witnesses said.

Hassan has appointed a commission to investigate election-related violence but has repeatedly denied that security forces acted improperly, and has accused protesters of seeking to overthrow the government.

The United States said last week it was reviewing its relationship with Tanzania over concerns about violence against civilians as well as religious freedom, free speech and barriers to investment. REUTERS