NAIROBI – Tanzanian politicians are in shock over the massacre of hundreds of young protesters during the recent election, insiders told AFP.

However, they are too afraid to speak out, as a tiny cabal of hardliners around the president takes control.

Gruesome images of dead Tanzanians have flooded the internet in the wake of the 29 October elections that triggered widespread protests over government repression.

President Samia Suluhu Hassan was officially declared the winner with 98% of the vote, but key opposition leaders were jailed or disqualified.

The opposition says more than 1 000 were killed as security forces crushed the protests under cover of a five-day internet blackout.

Two weeks on, the government has yet to give any casualty numbers. “There are… disturbing reports that security forces have been seen removing bodies from streets and hospitals and taking them to undisclosed locations in an apparent attempt to conceal evidence,” UN human rights chief Volker Turk said on Tuesday.

A senior official in the Tanzanian government who said they were horrified by the events of the past fortnight, agreed to talk to AFP.

The official said they would end up dead if their name were published, but provided AFP with coordinates for two suspected sites of mass graves near Dar es Salaam, at Kondo and Mabwepande. These could not be independently verified, however.

A tiny cabal

A tiny cabal around President Hassan now has total control over the levers of power and repression in the East African country, said both the official and a former presidential advisor, who also spoke on condition of anonymity.

“People in the government are in shock… there’s disbelief. Nobody has the guts to talk… that’s the sad part of it. But people do whisper,” they said.

AFP has spoken to multiple eyewitnesses who describe seeing people shot at point-blank range by police and unidentified armed men.

One described a bystander shot in the head by a soldier in Dar es Salaam on election day. 

The next day, he saw three people lined up and shot “five or six times” in the legs by police.

The opposition has called fresh protests for Independence Day on 9 December.

“We really don’t know what to do. Do we want more demos? No, because the youth are going to be executed again,” said the government official.

The ‘cabal’ 

The group around the president includes her son, Abdul Halim Hafidh Ameir; her private secretary, Waziri Salum; the head of the intelligence service, Suleiman Abubakar Mombo; and a little-known member of the East African parliament, Angela Kizigha, according to two government sources.

“There’s a very, very tiny cabal who is informing and influencing the president and running the country,” said the former presidential advisor.

“It’s unprecedented and very un-Tanzanian,” they added. Everyone else “has been completely frozen out”. The violence began more than a year before the elections, with critics being attacked, kidnapped, and murdered.

Hassan’s son, Abdul, has “a private militia and most of the people believe that’s the one involved in the abductions from the beginning”, said the official. The government has denied responsibility for abductions.  Spokesperson did not respond to AFP requests for comment for this article.

Before the election, the Tanganyika Law Society had confirmed 83 abductions under Hassan’s rule, but said reported disappearances increased significantly in the final days of the campaign.

Some were high-profile, like former government spokesman and ambassador Humphrey Polepole, reported missing from his blood-stained home on 6 October after resigning in a letter that criticised Hassan’s government. Others were unknown individuals in small villages, seemingly targeted for minor online posts.

“Why are you abducting a 20-year-old kid just because they criticised you? You’re the president, for crying out loud!” said the government official.

‘Deep-seated paranoia’ 

Hassan inherited the presidency on the sudden death of authoritarian president John Magufuli in 2021. She faced strong opposition from within the party but was feted for easing restrictions on the opposition and media.

That opening proved short-lived, however, as repression returned worse than ever in 2024.  

– Nampa/AFP