Tanzania starts new probe into fatal 2025 election violence

DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania 

The President of Tanzania, Samia Hassan, on Friday August 7 launched a Presidential Commission of Inquiry to investigate individuals involved in acts of violence and violations of the law during and after the October 2025 General Election that left over 500 people dead.

The commission is the second to be established following the first inquiry commission, which was formed to investigate the causes and effects of the incidents that occurred during and after the general election.

The first Commission submitted its report to the President on 23 April 2026. The report indicated that 518 people were killed, more than 2,000 others were injured, and property worth approximately 125 billion Tanzanian shillings was destroyed.

The commission also recommended the establishment of another inquiry body to investigate those responsible for the killings and acts of violence and violations of the law during the October 2025 unrest.

The newly launched Presidential Commission will focus on specific incidents highlighted in the first Commission’s report that have not been put public. It consists of six members, including four members from Tanzania, one from Namibia, and one from Uganda.

The commission will be chaired by Justice Shabani Ally Lila and is expected to complete its work within 150 days, which is approximately five months.

A series of demonstrations and civil unrest began in Tanzania on 29 October 2025 amid the country's 2025 general election. 

The protests erupted in the commercial city of Dar es Salaam and later spread to other cities, following allegations of electoral irregularities, suppression of opposition parties, and police intimidation. 

Security forces responded with gunfire, tear gas, and curfews, as well as targeted killings, prompting international concern and travel warnings from several foreign governments. 

Western diplomats and rights groups accuse Hassan's government of massacring hundreds of people during the election unrest, as well as abducting and murdering critics in the run-up to the vote.

Opposition and religious groups say thousands were killed by security forces, while Western diplomats have given estimates of between 1,000 and 2,000.

Weak Uganda opposition leader, Besigye returned to Prison despite severe health concerns, wife says

KAMPALA, Uganda 

Ugandan opposition leader Dr Kizza Besigye has been returned to Luzira Prison from Mulago Hospital despite still being unable to walk, speak, or feed himself, according to his wife, Winnie Byanyima.

In a statement, Byanyima said Besigye was taken back to prison shortly after 7:00 pm on Friday, while he was still recovering from a recent health crisis and dependent on assistance for basic care.

“After 7:00 pm tonight, my partner was bundled up and taken back to Luzira Prison. When I left KB at 4:30 pm, he still could not walk or talk. At lunch, I fed him soft food with a spoon because his arms and hands remain very weak,” Byanyima said.

She questioned the decision to return Besigye to prison before he had regained the ability to care for himself.

“Why the rush to return a seriously ill man to prison before he can walk, talk or feed himself?” she asked.

Byanyima said Besigye’s family had been helping to feed and care for him at Mulago, where doctors had prescribed a rehabilitation programme following his recent deterioration.

She said a senior prisons official had attended a meeting between the family and Besigye’s doctors and acknowledged that Luzira could not support him in his current condition.

According to Byanyima, the official recommended that Besigye remain at Mulago while he underwent rehabilitation and recovered.

She said the decision changed after Health Minister Chris Baryomunsi visited Mulago, following which an order was issued to transfer Besigye back to Luzira.

Byanyima condemned the decision, saying: “Taking a helpless patient from where he can receive rehabilitation and family assistance, and returning him to a prison that cannot support his condition, is cruel.”

Besigye’s latest health crisis follows his collapse during a court session on July 29, after which he was taken to Mulago Hospital for treatment.

EAST AFRICA NEWSPAPERS 8/8/2026

 

300 children killed in Gaza in 300 days, UNICEF says

NEW YORK, United States 

At least 300 children have been killed in Gaza over the past 300 days, the UN Children’s Fund said on Thursday, an average of one a day as civilians in the territory continue to face intense military strikes including shelling, gunfire and naval fire.

Hundreds more children were reportedly injured during the same period, the fund added.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said children in Gaza continued to live in difficult conditions that include overcrowded shelters and limited access to safe water and healthcare.

In the West Bank, settler attacks and Israeli military operations continue to affect the homes and livelihoods of Palestinians, OCHA warned.

Israeli settlers reportedly set fire to homes overnight in the Palestinian community of Tuba, in the Masafer Yatta area of Hebron, displacing three families, including 14 children, who sought safety with relatives or neighbors.

Several people were injured, including two children, OCHA said, and a solar power system and 10 tonnes of animal feed were destroyed, along with other property.

Between the start of the year and the end of July, OCHA documented more than 1,380 incidents involving Israeli settlers that resulted in casualties, property damage or both, an average of between six and seven a day across 250 Palestinian communities.

More than 2,300 Palestinians were displaced during the same period as a result of settler attacks and related access restrictions, OCHA said. It reiterated that Palestinians across the occupied territories must be protected and perpetrators who target them must be held accountable.

In Jerusalem Governorate, meanwhile, thousands of Palestinians in Qalandia Camp remained under closure conditions for a second straight day on Thursday after Israeli forces launched a major operation there. 

OCHA said humanitarian workers were unable to access the area safely, raising concerns about the safety of residents and their ability to obtain emergency care, access services and reach workplaces.

Uganda approves sending troops for international force in Gaza

KAMPALA, Uganda 

Ugandan authorities sought and won parliamentary approval Thursday to deploy troops to Gaza as part of the international force proposed by U.S. President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace to secure the territory following the devastating Israel-Hamas war.

The successful motion, brought by the defense minister, is Uganda’s first public indication of its willingness to join the International Stabilization Force for Gaza. Morocco also has pledged troops for the mission.

It was not immediately clear why Uganda agreed to deploy in Gaza, or if there was a quid pro quo involved, and some opposition lawmakers immediately questioned Uganda’s motive in the decision. Lawmaker Hassan Kirumira said the deployment would raise “diplomatic concerns” for a country that is a member of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.

The “big question” for supporters of the deployment to clarify is: “On which side is our army going to fight?” he said in parliament.

Defense Minister Kiryowa Kiwanuka, seeking the support of lawmakers, cited Uganda’s military capabilities stemming from its peacekeeping deployments in countries such as Somalia.

The force, proposed by Trump’s Board of Peace in February, would be led by American Maj. Gen. Jasper Jeffers, who said in May that the 20,000-strong force would ensure “future prosperity and enduring peace.”

Last week Trump announced a deal for Hamas to disarm and for Israel to withdraw its forces from Gaza. According to that deal, the International Stabilization Force would be deployed to Gaza after the completion of a phased withdrawal of Israeli troops.

The agreement, part of a broader ceasefire deal reached last year, calls for Israel to cease its military operations and for Hamas and its allies in Gaza to halt all militant activity. The agreement also laid out in general terms what the decommissioning process would look like.

After the text of the agreement was released, Israel said it had “serious security concerns” and that it shared those with the U.S.

Israeli attacks have killed 1,250 people since the ceasefire deal was reached in October, an agreement that ended major fighting in the Israel-Hamas war that had raged for two years.

Meta fined $567m in largest child safety ruling against social media giant

NEW MEXICO, United States 

A US judge in New Mexico has ordered Meta to pay another $567m (£421m) for its failure to warn the public about dangers its platforms posed to children, marking the largest ruling against the company over child safety.

Judge Bryan Biedscheid said the social media giant is a "public nuisance" akin to air pollution and that it must put the money in a fund aimed at reducing future harms.

Thursday's ruling is in addition to $375m in fines Meta was already ordered to pay in the case, for a total of $942m.

Judge Biedscheid compared Meta to a factory, with advertising and content as its product and "the psychological harm and sexual exploitation of children to be the pollution that must be abated".

A spokesman for Meta, which owns and operates Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp and Threads, said Thursday: "We disagree with the ruling and will appeal."

"We work hard to keep people safe on our platforms and have been transparent about the challenges of identifying and removing bad actors and harmful content. We remain confident in our record of protecting teens online and will continue to defend ourselves against claims that misrepresent the facts."

Regarding the earlier $375m verdict in the case, Meta had said it intended to appeal the ruling and gave a similar explanation. It was the first time that a state had successfully sued Meta over child safety issues.

Meta is currently facing thousands of lawsuits in the US over similar issues. In addition to the New Mexico rulings, Meta earlier this year lost a case in Los Angeles making similar claims.

The New Mexico case stems from a 2023 lawsuit brought by attorneys for the State of New Mexico, arguing Meta should be held liable for the way in which its platforms endangered children and exposed them to sexually explicit material and contact with sexual predators.

In the first phase of the trial, Meta was found to have repeatedly violated New Mexico's Unfair Practices Act as its recommendation algorithms essentially "steered" young users toward harmful content and contacts.

Recommendation algorithms are the tools that Meta uses to automatically curate the content a user sees on its platforms.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has seen his company face an increasing number of lawsuits over child safety

In ruling on this second phase of the trial, Judge Biedscheid found that Meta's harms reached the level of "public nuisance", or an issue of health and safety that has become so widespread it is negatively impacting a general public.

In addition to being the largest fine Meta has received over child safety issues, the ruling also appears to be the first time that a social media company has been deemed a public nuisance.

"Just as noxious pollution produced by the factory can harm the common public right to reasonably clean air, the harmful effects of Meta's platforms on children do not stay contained by its platforms and, instead, migrate to the internet as a whole and, perhaps most concerning, to the real world and create a common, societal burden on and harm to the affected children and their families and schools, as well as hospitals and law enforcement," the judge wrote.

The fund that Meta has been ordered to create will be used to pay for efforts to mitigate "the wide-ranging impacts of the harm", Judge Biedscheid said.

A vast majority of the money, totaling $420m, will go towards treatment of harms Meta's platforms have already caused, through the funding of "appropriate clinical or other behavioral health programs and professionals," according to the order.

EAST AFRICA NEWSPAPERS 7/8/2026

 

Uefa says boycott may still go ahead as FA withdraws Infantino support

LONDON, England 

European teams could still boycott competitions including the World Cup as Uefa says Fifa's defence of its president Gianni Infantino "changes nothing".

The English FA has sent a letter withdrawing its support for Infantino in reaction to the plan to sell off stakes in the World Cup to private investors.

European governing body Uefa said in a statement its conditions had not been met, despite Infantino's plan being aborted.

"First, the proposals to sell off the major competitions had to be withdrawn and secondly," Uefa's statement said. "Assurances have to be made that such attempts to disfigure the game in this way will never be made again.

"These conditions have not been met."

Uefa has already said it has lost confidence in Infantino, calling the Fifa Forward Enterprise (FFE) proposal a "shabby, back room, opaque deal".

Infantino had offered all associations $40m (£30m) if they backed a proposal for private investment in its tournaments, including the men's and women's World Cups, through the FFE subsidiary.

World governing body Fifa said during Wednesday's meeting "mistakes" regarding FFE were "acknowledged", saying it was "not the intention" for the Fifa Council and members association to "feel excluded from the process and that the process should have been handled differently".

Uefa's statement in response added: "Uefa made it abundantly clear in its statement on Saturday that it has lost confidence in Gianni Infantino's presidency. That position holds.

"Yesterday's announcement that some people employed by the Fifa president (and whose careers depend on his favour) agree with him changes nothing."

Fifa has been approached for comment.

Over 300 kidnapping victims in Nigeria rescued in major operation

ABUJA, Nigeria 

Nigeria said more than 300 people abducted in separate attacks have been rescued in a joint intelligence and security operation.

In a statement on Wednesday, the country’s presidency said 163 of them were kidnapped in February from Woro village in Kwara State, while the 145 others were taken from Niger State.

They were rescued from a location in the Kainji Lake National Park Forest and it is it not yet clear whether any suspects were detained during the one-day operation.

It was carried out by the National Counter Terrorism Centre, involving members of the army, the police force, and the Department of State Services.

The people rescued are reportedly receiving medical care at a military site before being reunited with their families.

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu welcomed their liberation, describing the operation as a sign of improved coordination among security agencies.

Kidnapping for ransom by criminal groups, Boko Haram-linked fighters, and gangs known as bandits is a major problem in Nigeria, especially in areas with little state presence.

Suspected jihadists went on a rampage in Woro earlier this year after they had sent a letter to the village announcing their intention to preach, only to have no-one show up.

In apparent retaliation, they burned houses and killed upwards of 165 people and kidnapped an unknown number, residents said at the time, though local authorities gave a lower toll.

Media reports had put the number of those kidnapped at 176, though as recently as Friday the police in Kwara state said that number was unsubstantiated.

Large parts of the village had been reduced to piles of ash and rubble in the assault.

Tinubu at the time condemned what he called a "beastly attack", deploying an army battalion to the troubled region and blaming Islamist movement Boko Haram - though the name is often used generically for jihadist groups in Nigeria.

A few months before, the Al-Qaeda-linked Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM) claimed its first attack on Nigerian soil in the state, near Woro.

Over the weekend, gunmen kidnapped at least 52 people, including children, in an attack on a village and military base in north-west Nigeria's Zamfara state.

EAST AFRICA NEWSPAPERS 6/8/2026