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  • 2 days ago
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00:00Tanzanian authorities have lifted an internet blackout that was imposed to try and quell riots which broke out after presidential and parliamentary elections.
00:09President Samia Saluhu-Hassan is seeking a second term in the election and is almost guaranteed to win because her main opponent was barred from running.
00:18Our chief AFCA correspondent Jennifer Zavazaja joins us from Johannesburg. Jen, what is the latest?
00:23Yeah, Jumana, it's been quite an evolving situation since those elections on Wednesday. As you were just mentioning there, we have seen outbreaks of violence being reported.
00:33There's clashes between protesters and police. And, of course, we did see an internet blackout initially. That's been lifted.
00:41But a curfew has not. And I was just taking a look at a U.S. embassy advisory and there's still reports to be the closed down streets to the official international airport there in Dar es Salaam.
00:53But we should remember these pictures and a lot of the frustration has not just been this week.
00:59There had been weeks and months of frustration by a number of Tanzanians just calling for free and fair elections because the ruling party, as you were mentioning there,
01:07President Hassan is now the official leader of the ruling party. But they've been in power for more than four decades.
01:15And so a number of Tanzanians were calling for free and fair elections, especially after we did see the main opposition candidates
01:22barred from running and in some cases even detained. So much so that Amnesty International actually was reporting that leading up to the vote,
01:31there was allegedly silencing, the authorities were silencing dissent and committing systemic human rights abuses.
01:38We should point out, though, that the government, when they did see that official report from Amnesty International,
01:43they said they were deeply concerned by it and that the government was committed to the protection of human rights, freedom of expression,
01:51peaceful assembly and access to information. But many people are wondering just how that's playing out,
01:58especially now that we're seeing some of these pictures and getting some of the reporting there on the ground in the economic hub of Dar es Salaam.
02:04Yeah, I mean, you speak about Dar es Salaam being an economic hub. Do we know, is it too early to say what some of the financial implications are
02:13of this continued unrest? Well, we have seen some multinationals already taking some steps given the reports that are coming out there.
02:22One, Emirates has a flight from Dubai actually to Dar. They put out an advisory that I was just taking a look at.
02:30It's still in effect. And it's not just tourism that we should point out there. Of course, Tanzania is home to Mount Kilimanjaro,
02:38Zanzibar, which are two very big tourist spots for people. But it's also very important for a number of copper producers.
02:45And I'm talking about Zambia and the DRC. There in Tanzania, there's a very critical port that copper producers rely on.
02:54And so if we do continue to see unrest, potentially we see more multinationals taking some steps.
03:01I know earlier you were just speaking with our colleague Matt Hill about Mozambique and the situation there.
03:06There's also concern because President Hassan was meant to oversee a $46 billion LNG project.
03:12And so what does that mean potentially for ongoing agreements that have been made?
03:16There's also a number of investments into ports and railways and harbors that are in the pipeline there in Tanzania.
03:23So you can only imagine that multinationals are watching the situation very closely and continuing to see how it evolves.
03:30And I should just point out, we haven't gotten official results. But you mentioned there,
03:34it's largely expected that the ruling party and President Hassan will be reelected.
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