Politics

Tanzania: Opposition CHADEMA protests, calls for constitutional reform

Published

3 months ago

January 25, 2024

Ahead of the general election that is scheduled for next year, Tanzania’s political opposition staged its first significant demonstration in years on Wednesday.

In addition to easing other limitations on the media and opposition parties, President Samia Suluhu Hassan has overturned the ban on the majority of political gatherings, which her predecessor, John Magufuli, had put in place in 2016.

But the opposition wants more and is calling for constitutional amendments that would limit the president’s authority and restructure the electoral commission, as the Eastern African country has been governed by a single party since 1977.

The opposition Party for Democracy and Progress, known as CHADEMA, organized the demonstration that took place in Dar es Salaam, the commercial centre, on Wednesday.

CHADEMA claims that the current constitution makes it impossible to hold free and fair elections. The government was also urged to lower living expenses.

Thousands of supporters of CHADEMA marched through Dar es Salaam while brandishing banners with messages calling for constitutional changes and an independent election authority. The marchers were escorted by police personnel.

“I’m here to push for the new constitution and for the new electoral laws, which will bring accountable leaders,” Ananilea Nkya, a rights activist and one of the protesters, told a journalist as she walked.

“I will continue to fight and protest until we get all of these.”

Related Topics:Chadema Featured Tanzania

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Politics

Burkina Faso investigating reports of northern killings

Published

15 hours ago

April 28, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

A government spokesman has revealed that Burkina Faso is looking into reports that 223 people were killed by the Burkinabe army in two villages in the north in February.

The killing was first reported by the Human Rights Watch (HRW), causing a rift between the junta-led West African state and some foreign media that published the report. The HRW report released on Thursday said that the military had executed residents of Nodin and Soro, including at least 56 children, as part of a campaign against civilians suspected of working with jihadist terrorists. The report was based on interviews with witnesses, members of civil society, and other groups.

Rimtalba Jean Emmanuel Ouedraogo, a spokesman for the government, said that HRW’s claims were “peremptory” and that the junta was not unwilling to look into the claimed crimes.

“An investigation has been launched into the killings in Nodin and Soro,” Ouedraogo said in a late-evening statement, quoting a statement from a regional prosecutor on March 1.

Since Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger’s militaries took over in a series of coups from 2020 to 2023, violence in the area has gotten worse. This is because of the ten-year fight with Islamist groups related to Al Qaeda and Islamic State.

Attacks on Burkina Faso got much worse in 2023, with more than 8,000 people killed, according to the U.S.-based crisis-monitoring group ACLED.

Politics

S’Africa lengthens troop deployment in Mozambique, Congo DR

Published

3 days ago

April 26, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

President Cyril Ramaphosa said in a speech that South Africa’s military would keep sending troops to Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which are both in the middle of wars.

The extension will leave 1,198 members of the South African National Defense Force (SANDF) in eastern Congo for an unknown amount of time. They are there as part of a United Nations peacekeeping force helping Congo fight rebel groups.

The statement also said that 1,495 members of the SANDF would keep working in Mozambique, where they have been since 2021 helping the government fight dangerous extremism in the north.

After two SANDF troops were killed and three were hurt by a mortar bomb in Congo in February, South Africa’s military operations abroad have been looked at more closely at home this year.

Meanwhile, the major opposition party in South Africa, the Democratic Alliance, said that Ramaphosa sent troops into a war zone without being ready.
Under the supervision of the UN, the SANDF has taken on many dangerous and difficult peacekeeping tasks over the years to help war-torn African countries stay stable and peaceful.

In 2003, South Africa was one of the first countries to send troops to Burundi to help the peace process. During the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) peacekeeping mission in 2000, the SANDF led attempts to stabilize the country’s politics, rebuild and improve infrastructure, and train DRC troops.