Circuit Wire — a daily news update from the Circuit.
The U.S. Embassy in Dar es Salaam issued a security alert on October 28 ahead of the first anniversary of Tanzania's deadly election violence on October 29. Calls have gone out for peaceful commemorations across the country.
The embassy said security forces may respond heavily to gatherings. It listed possible roadblocks, checkpoints, movement restrictions and intermittent internet blackouts. It described the situation as "fluid" and said it would share updates when available. Its advice to U.S. citizens was to avoid public gatherings and demonstrations, keep a low profile and review personal security plans.
The opposition party CHADEMA has announced seven days of mourning from October 29 to November 4, Al Jazeera reported. The alert covers the whole country rather than a single city.
The anniversary arrives as the party's leader, Tundu Lissu, remains in custody. He came second in the 2020 presidential election and survived being shot 16 times in a 2017 assassination attempt. He was arrested in April 2025 after a rally calling for electoral reforms. He faces a treason charge over a speech that prosecutors say urged people to disrupt the 2025 vote. The charge carries a possible death sentence. He has pleaded not guilty, and his lawyers call the case politically motivated. Judgement is due on November 6.
Lissu stopped eating this week after his lawyers were denied entry to the prison. Accounts differ on when it began. He ended it on Tuesday after meeting his brother and then his lawyers. The prisons service denied he had been on hunger strike and said he was safe.
A government-appointed inquiry found at least 518 people were killed in the violence that followed the October 2025 vote. CHADEMA puts the toll at about 2,000. The United Nations has said it could not verify that figure.
President Samia Suluhu Hassan won the 2025 election. The government rejects claims of widespread abuses. It ordered an investigation into reports of abductions of government critics in 2024, but no official findings have been published.
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