After a five-day ban, the internet in Tanzania was partially restored on Monday, but numerous internet services and social networks remain blocked. Netblocks reported this, and this can also be seen elsewhere: measurement data from the Open Observatory of Network Interference (OONI) shows that neither Facebook Messenger nor Signal and WhatsApp work in the country – Telegram does too, but it was blocked beforehand. Tor cannot currently be used from Tanzania either. Cloudflare has also been able to observe the restoration of the Internet; the US company announced temporary liftings of the blockages on Thursday and Sunday.
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The nationwide internet shutdown began last week at the same time as presidential and parliamentary elections in the East African country. There was no information about the background. After the polling stations closed, reports of demonstrations spread across the country. A re-election of President Samia Suluhu Hassan (65) was considered certain, also because the two most promising opposing candidates were excluded from the election. Parallel to the blocking of the Internet, a state of emergency was declared after the vote, and yesterday, Monday, the incumbent president was sworn in for her second term in office. According to official results, Hassan was re-elected with 97.66 percent of the vote.
Radio France Internationale (RFI) is now reporting that hundreds of people are said to have died in the massive protests in recent days. Citing an anonymous source, the French foreign broadcaster also writes that there are “worrying reports” that the police in Tanzania are said to have used the time without internet “to hunt down opposition figures and people with video recordings of the crimes.” Dozens of election observers from ten countries criticized the elections and said that many people were unable to express their democratic will. Despite the end of the internet shutdown, there are still no new articles on news sites from Tanzania.
According to the dpa, the sworn president expressed her sadness at the loss of life and the destruction of property in her inaugural speech. She blamed foreign citizens for the violence. At the same time, she warned that the security forces would take decisive action against troublemakers. “We have to make sure something like this never happens again,” she said. Schools and shops remain closed in the country, and public transport remains idle, according to the RFI. The opposition has already called for new elections and is strongly criticizing the state leadership.
(my)
