Manenos Selanyika could only receive a symbolic burial. His family never found his body after the violent unrest of Tanzania\u2019s election three months ago.<\/p>\n
The 40-year-old journalist was shot dead by security forces on October 30, neighbours told the family.<\/p>\n
He had ventured out for food supplies amid protests that had engulfed Tanzania during elections the previous day.<\/p>\n
The neighbours told the family he was shot on Mbezi Africana Street on the outskirts of the country\u2019s biggest city, Dar es Salaam, but police would not let anyone retrieve the body.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want to twist words. It was the police (that shot him),\u201d one of his relatives told AFP. Their name is being withheld to protect them from reprisals.<\/p>\n
The family hunted through dozens of corpses at multiple hospitals in the following days, but to no avail.<\/p>\n
After more than a week, they gave up and decided to hold a symbolic burial at Lambo village near Mount Kilimanjaro.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe only had a marker to show that this is where his grave would be,\u201d the relative said.<\/p>\n
Missing bodies<\/b><\/p>\n
Hundreds of families are believed to be in the same position. The authorities are accused of dumping bodies in mass graves.<\/p>\n
The protests were sparked by the banning of opposition candidates and a campaign of killings and abductions against critics of President Samia Suluhu Hassan.<\/p>\n
She was declared winner with 98 percent of the vote but only after five days of violence in which an estimated 2,000 people were killed by security forces under cover of an internet blackout, according to the opposition.<\/p>\n
The government has still not released an official toll and did not respond to questions from AFP for this article.<\/p>\n
Sheila Gyumi (not her real name) lost her husband on election day after he went out to work as normal as a motorbike courier.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt that time things didn\u2019t seem tense, everything looked calm,\u201d she told AFP. \u201cLater, I saw the situation had changed, so I started calling him, but he didn\u2019t answer.\u201d<\/p>\n
The family went to multiple police stations and all the major hospitals but felt they were stonewalled at every turn.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel very bad. My husband was someone who cared deeply about his family,\u201d she told AFP.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know where he is. There is bound to be pain, and there are bound to be questions from the child,\u201d she said, adding that she was now struggling to afford rent and schooling.<\/p>\n
AFP has previously spoken with a doctor at a major hospital in Dar es Salaam who said hundreds of corpses were taken from its morgue by security forces to secret locations at the height of the unrest.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe believe that maybe (Selanyika) is among those in a mass grave, as reported by the media, although the government denied it,\u201d said the journalist\u2019s relative.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been three months. We don\u2019t think we will ever find (the body),\u201d they added.<\/p>\n
\u2018Fear\u2019<\/b><\/p>\n
Many of those killed were innocent bystanders, say rights groups and witnesses, most too scared to talk for fear of reprisals.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere has been fear for our safety, including the risk of arrest by security agencies,\u201d said another of Selanyika\u2019s relatives.<\/p>\n
The government has vowed an investigation but has largely downplayed the unrest, with the president saying no excessive violence was used.<\/p>\n
The Centre for Information Resilience, an independent digital investigation organisation, analysed 185 images and videos from the protests and found \u201cthe repeated use of live ammunition by security forces and plain-clothed armed men, resulting in casualties\u201d.<\/p>\n
It \u201cidentified possible mass graves through satellite imagery and verified large piles of bodies\u201d within user-generated content.<\/p>\n
Foreign journalists were banned from covering the elections, while local reporters, who already face heavy censorship, were ordered not to cover the unrest.<\/p>\n
At least one journalist, Godfrey Thomas of Millard Ayo TV, has been charged with treason for reporting on the protests.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was an extremely difficult period,\u201d said a veteran reporter, whose name is also being withheld.<\/p>\n
The images on state TV were \u201ccompletely disconnected from what was happening on the ground. Even the election results that were announced \u2014 I don\u2019t know where they came from,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Source:<\/b> AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Manenos Selanyika could only receive a symbolic burial. His family never found his body after the violent unrest of Tanzania\u2019s election three months ago. The 40-year-old journalist was shot dead by security forces on October 30, neighbours told the family. He had ventured out for food supplies amid protests that had engulfed Tanzania during elections […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":147592,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3,14901],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-147593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-community","category-elections2025"],"yoast_head":"\n