'Abducted' Tanzania opposition figure found dead

Ali Mohamed Kibao, a member of Chadema's national secretariat, was forced off a bus at gunpoint on Friday by suspected security agents as he was travelling from Dar es Salaam to the northern port city of Tanga, party officials said.

His body was found in the Ununio waterfront district of Dar es Salaam on Saturday night.

The incident comes less than a month after Mbowe, his deputy Tundu Lissu and other Chadema leaders were briefly detained in a mass roundup ahead of a planned party youth event.

"The postmortem has been conducted (witnessed by) Chadema lawyers and it is clear that Kibao was severely beaten and had acid poured on his face," Mbowe told reporters.

"We cannot allow our people to continue disappearing or being killed like this," he said. "The lives of Chadema leaders are currently at risk."

He said several other party officials had also gone missing, without giving details.

Kibao was a retired military intelligence officer who had worked with other opposition parties as well as the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) before joining Chadema, he said, without giving a timeline.

Police are yet to issue a statement about Kibao's death although police spokesman David Misime had said Saturday that investigations had been launched into the reported abduction.

Rights groups and government opponents have raised fears the recent crackdown on the opposition could signal a return to the oppressive policies of Tanzania's late president John Magufuli.

The arrests came despite his successor President Samia Suluhu Hassan vowing a return to "competitive politics" and easing some restrictions on the opposition and the media, including lifting a six-year ban on opposition gatherings.

Amnesty said the mass arrests in August were a "deeply worrying sign" in the run-up to local government elections in December 2024 and general elections due late next year.

Mbowe himself was also arrested in July 2021 ahead of a party meeting to demand constitutional reforms before being freed the following March after prosecutors dropped terrorism charges against him.

Lissu, who ran unsuccessfully for the presidency in 2020, has also been arrested multiple times and survived an assassination attempt in 2017.

He returned to Tanzania, after living largely in exile for more than five years, following Hassan's decision in 2023 to lift the ban on opposition.