Crisis Chronology

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TANZANIA

01/24/2024

Large protests, called by Chadema, against proposed changes in electoral law that it believes are insufficient.

12/06/2023

Heavy rains have caused landslides that have killed 65 people and displaced thousands in Tanzania. The weather is a consequence of the El Niño pattern in the Pacific Ocean.

01/14/2023

Opposition leader and former presidential candidate Tundu Lissu has said he will return exile in Europe on 1/25.

01/03/2023

President Samia Suluhu Hassan lifts ban on opposition rallies imposed by imposed by Magafuli in 2016.

09/21/2022

Tanzania and Mozambique sign defense and security agreements to fight Islamic terrorists.

03/04/2022

Charges against Mbowe are dropped and he meets with President Suluhu raising hopes for an opening for greater democracy.

02/18/2022

Chadema Party leader Freeman Mbowe ordered to stand trial for terrorism.

11/30/2021

Dar-es-Salaam experiencing severe water shortages as rivers dry up due to a lack of rainfall and record high temperatures. October is the beginning of the short rainy season.

08/31/2021

Chadema party chairman Freeman Mbowe arrives in court under heavy security. He is accused of terrorism.

07/28/2021

Pres Suluhu gets COVID-19 vaccination live on television, initiating vaccination campaign.

04/07/2021

Suluhu announces formation of a committee to determine whether to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, the existence of which Magafuli had denied.

03/30/2021

Parliament confirms Philip Isdor Mpango as the new vice-president.

03/17/2021

Magafuli dies

Magafuli dies, apparently of a heart condition. Vice-president Samia Suluhu Hassan will be head of government, the first woman to hold the office in Tanzania, and will serve out Magafuli’s term, until 2025.

03/10/2021

Opposition calls for news about Magafuli, who has not appeared in public for two weeks. Several officials in government have died in recent weeks, including the first vice-president of Zanzibar, who died of COVID-19.

11/10/2020

Lissu leaves the country.

11/02/2020

Opposition leaders are arrested ahead of planned protests.

10/31/2020

Magafuli re-elected

Magafuli declared the winner of the election with 84% of the vote. The opposition says there was fraud and foreign observers suspect the size of the margin, but Magafuli is very popular. Dr. Hussein Ali Mwinyi, also of the ruling CCM party is elected president of Zanzibar, although the ACT-Wazalendo party leader Hamad says he will contest the result. Hamad and other party officials were arrested and released after the election.

10/31/2020

Magafuli re-elected

10/27/2020

ACT Wazalendo party accuses the police of killing seven of its members in protests before the election. ACT Wazalendo Zanzibar presidential candidate Maalim Seif Sharif Hamad has been arrested.

10/10/2020

Election campaign for president of Zanzibar begins. Hussein Ali Mwinyi, the candidate of the ruling party Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM), is the favorite. He advocates for economic reform and continued union with Tanzanian mainland.

10/10/2020

10/01/2020

Campaigning for October elections. Magufuli promises new economic development. Tundu Lissu, main opposition candidate, promises reforms to ensure freedoms.

07/21/2020

Election commission sets 10/28/20 for general election.

06/30/2020

All schools reopen. Tanzania has just over 500 cases and 60 deaths.

06/22/2020

Bernard Membe, a former foreign minister, has asked the Central Committee of the governing Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party to allow him to challenge Magafuli for the presidential candidature. The CCM announced that it had expelled Membe in 2/20, but he says that has not been formally communicated to him.

06/16/2020

Parliament is dissolved ahead of elections in October.

06/10/2020

Tundu Lissu of Chadema announces candidacy for presidency, which will be voted in October. He is in Belgium recuperating from a 2017 assassination attempt.

06/09/2020

Chadema announces that party leader Freeman Mbowe was beaten in an attack and is being treated.

05/18/2020

Magafuli says there will be no stay-at-home order. Tanzania, which has been criticized for a lack of transparency in its COVID-19 data, has about 500 cases and 20 deaths.

05/05/2020

The head of the national health laboratory is suspended a day after Magafuli announces that animals, fruits, and vehicle oil were secretly tested at the national laboratory and found to be positive for coronavirus. Magafuli has downplayed the dangers of COVID-19.

03/16/2020

Tanzania confirms its first case of COVID-19.

02/03/2020

Opposition calls for electoral reform. Sweden cuts aid because of concerns about the electoral process.

11/25/2019

Ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party wins almost all seats in local elections. The opposition boycotted the vote.

09/03/2019

Parliament formally replaces opposition leader Tundu Lissu, a critic of Magafuli, on the basis of alleged absenteeism and ethical issues. He was replaced in a by-election in August with a member of the ruling CCM party. Opposition boycotts the swearing-in of new member.

06/13/2019

Opposition leader and MP Zitto Kabwe arrested for violating media law prohibiting publishing false information.

01/29/2019

Parliament passes a series of laws allowing the government to register parties and jail anyone engaging in “unauthorized public education,” which could include voting drives. The opposition says it effectively outlaws political activity not condoned by the government. The government has already outlawed some newspapers, restricted opposition rallies, and detained politicians. It has also intervened in mining and agriculture, which has reduced foreign investment.

01/14/2019

Court rejects a petition by opposition leaders to block a proposed new law that would make it easier for the government to suspend political parties and jail their leaders.

01/08/2019

Magafuli replaces some cabinet ministers, which he later explains as a way of minimizing conflict he had detected from monitoring the ministers’ conversations.

12/10/2018

Opposition parties protest proposed new election laws that would give the government control of the internal actions of political parties and bar parties that were deemed “activist.”

11/15/2018

EU says it will review its aid to Tanzania in light of Pres Magafuli’s restrictions on civil rights, the media, political parties, and LGBTI people.

10/30/2018

Governor of Dar Es Salaam vow to begin rounding up homosexuals in the city, beginning 11/5.

07/16/2018

Magafuli says his party will remain in power "forever."

07/02/2018

Magafuli shuffles cabinet, replacing three ministers, to strengthen domestic agriculture, water, and infrastructure.

01/08/2018

Pres Magafuli meets with opposition leader Edward Lowassa for the first time in two years. Magafuli, running on the Chama Cha Mapinduzi ticket, defeated Lowassa, head of the Chadema coalition, in 2015.

07/16/2017

Opposition leader Tundu Lissu is shot sixteen times in an apparent assassination attempt. No one has claimed responsibility for the shooting. Lissu called Pres Magafuli a “dictator” this month and was arrested and released.