EU Parliament calls for suspension of EU funds for Tanzania after post-election violence

Brussels –

The European Parliament speaks out on the violent repression of protests that broke out in Tanzania after the elections at the end of October. Thousands were killed and injured—over 3,000 victims, according to several human rights organisations in Africa—at the hands of a government benefiting from European funding programmes. In a resolution adopted today (27 November) by 539 votes to none, MEPs called on the European Commission to suspend any direct support to the Tanzanian authorities. 

On 29 October, President Samia Suluhu Hassan—whose Chama Cha Mapinduzi party has ruled uninterrupted for more than half a century—was confirmed with 98 per cent of the vote after excluding the leaders of the main opposition parties from the electoral contest. The protests that broke out in Dar es Salaam and in the main centres of the country were bloodily repressed: “thousands dead and injured, with reports of mass graves“, the EU Parliament underlines. In the resolution, the MEPs also denounce the “arbitrary and politically motivated detention” of the opposition leader Tundu Lissu, excluded from the electoral process and accused of a capital crime, and call for his “immediate and unconditional release.”

Strasbourg insisted on the need to establish an international commission of inquiry, led by African countries, to conduct “an impartial investigation into allegations of murder, enforced disappearances, torture and other violations.” And towards Brussels, the MEPs urge the EU Commission and Council to “suspend direct support to the Tanzanian authorities” and instead prioritise support for “civil society, human rights defenders, and journalists.” The text also calls for consideration of sanctions against those responsible for the violence. 

In a second non-binding resolution, adopted by a show of hands, the European Parliament asked the Commission to withdraw a draft decision on the financing of the EU’s Annual Action Plan (AAP) for Tanzania for 2025. This amounts to €156 million, which the executive had already suspended following the adoption of the resolution by the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee (AFET). In a note, the African country’s embassy in Brussels accused the European Parliament of undue interference and stressed that there was no opportunity to “present its side of the story and clarify the situation.”