Activist Sativa tells the BBC how he was shot and left for dead

Warning: This article contains details that some readers may find sad.

Following his kidnapping on a highway in the main city of Tanzania, social media activist Edgar Mawakabella, known as Sativa, says he is close to death.

In an interview with the BBC, he describes Kaif, after his kidnapping on June 23 last year, his kidnappers were interrogated and then collected throughout the country to the remote Katafi area near the Congolese border, more than 1000 km (600 miles).

Sativa says he was handcuffed, blindfolded and brutally beating, including hitting him over and repeatedly on his head, back and legs with the flat side of the sickle.

“It was very painful.”

The BBC tells that those who kidnapped him want to know who is easy to act, and why CCM is criticizing the CCM (CCM), in power since 1977.

Sativa believes that those who detained him are police officers or other agents linked to the authorities.

However, the government denies that it targets state critics.

Sativa says that on the fourth day after taking it, the violence continued when his kidnappers transferred him to the Katafi National Park, full of dangerous wild animals, and pulled it towards a river.

He believed that it was clear that his kidnappers had no intention to allow him to live.

Then, he says, a chilling thing came to her, shouting from a car behind them: “Shoot it!”

The trigger was pulled. A bullet went through its skull. His jaw was broken.

Sativa left Sativa – I think he left death.

As the edges of the general elections for the month of October are approaching, the kidnappings have become more common, most of which are targeting anti -government critics and opposition votes.

Every week, police or social media posts announce a missing person. Some have never been found, while others appear in stimulating accounts about violence or torture – some have been found dead.

Sativa provides a rare account from a survivor.

Despite her life -threatening injuries, he regained consciousness and crawled on the path of wildlife guards.

He will require a long and specialized treatment, and described his survival as “unusual”.

The police did not respond to the BBC requests for an interview, but in a video statement issued to the role of the media in June, its spokesman, Deputy Commissioner David Maysmi, said they were acting on information about the missing and conducting an investigation.

The British Broadcasting Corporation spoke to the families of the people who reported his loss and those who died, and they conveyed their suffering to their missing loved ones.

Shedrack Chaula, 25, is among those who are still missing.

He did not see or hear more than a year. In June 2024, the Tiktok video, which became a virus, was published by burning and insulting the image of President Samia Soloho.

He was arrested, convicted of the cyber celebration He was released after paying a fine. A month later, he was kidnapped by unknown individuals.

“We do not know when or if it was found. When he was arrested, at least we knew where it was. Now, even the authorities say they do not know,” said his father, Youssef Choula to the BBC.

He says that in August 2024, three men arrived in a car with colored windows and seized it. They did not introduce themselves, explain the cause, or where they took it.

“We have made every effort. We have exhausted. We have visited every detention facility. We went to prisons and police stations at different levels – local, region and regional,” he says.

The police insisted that the investigation was under progress.

“If we know where he is, where he is detained, or even if we know that he has died and was buried somewhere, at least we will have a grave to visit him,” says Mr. Chawla sadly, struggling with the torment of questions that were not answered.

In June, United Nations experts reported that more than 200 forced disappearances have been recorded In the country since 2019.

They expressed his warning about “torture to silence the opposition and critics” before the elections, and called on the government to “stop it immediately.”

Rights groups have recently accused Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch by government of arrests, abuse and enforced disappearance.

The authorities denied these allegations.

The police have set at least ten kidnapping cases since last year, some have been resolved since then, when many returned to 2019.

On June 18, the police announced that investigations led to the discovery of some of the victims who were still alive.

They added that some cases included self -kidnappings, while others arose from romantic relationships, sour beliefs, myths and conflicts of property.

“The police force urges relatives, friends and the public to remain calm, as the security forces continue their investigations to reveal the facts surrounding these incidents,” said Deputy Commissioner.

The President urged the police force to end the lost accidents – a directive that hops many Tanzanians to justice.

In May, the opposition activist and politician Mabaluka Nianghali, widely known as Mdude, was kidnapped from his home in MBEya, south of Tanzania, in a violent incident in his wife and young child.

There were blood stains at the scene, indicating the brutality of the attack.

Since then, members of the Chadima Party have launched the main opposition to MBEya and carried prayer stands, demanding answers from the police, who are suspected of being complicit in the accident.

To date, you haven’t heard MDUDE, Siji Mbugi, from him.

“I beg for the release of my husband, and I think he is being held by the police and the authorities. MDUDE did nothing. He never accelerated anything from anyone, I beg to release him. If he had problems and then took him to the court,” she says.

On July 9, the MBEya Supreme Court rejected a case that she had filed to the disappearance of her husband.

She had witnessed that armed individuals who knew themselves as police officers stormed their house late at night and assaulted MDUDE, before they took it away.

During the procedures, MBEya Police admitted that it was investigating the possibility that one of their officers had played a role in kidnapping MDude.

Activists described the issue as a major setback in the continuous struggle for justice to oppose the besieged Tanzania.

No arrests or trials have been made regarding accidents, although the police say that the investigations are underway.

Some activists from other countries in the region also accused the Tanzanian authorities of targeting them.

Kenny Bonifas Mwanji and Ugandan Agath AtorThey said they were arrested and subjected to sexual torture after arriving in Tanzania on May 19 to monitor the trial of opposition leader Tondo Lesu, who faces treason charges.

Mwanji and Atuhaire were unknown for several days. Both were abandoned near the borders of their countries.

But Jaman Moliro, commander of the Dar Al Salam police area, told the BBC at the time that their allegations were “ISIS” and asked them to provide evidence of investigations. They have since submitted a case in the Justice Court in East Africa Regional on this issue.

Their tribulations shed light on the issue of the enforced disappearance of government critics, opposition figures and human rights defenders in Tanzania.

“Nobody provides answers,” says Madhu William, a lawmaker at the Legal Human Rights and Human Rights Center.

“At the end of the day, we do not get comments about what is happening to him [cases]He says, citing the example of Ali Kibao, a senior official in Chadima, who was killed last year after his kidnapping, beating and educating him with acid.

Even the president [Samia] The security forces in Tanzania ordered a comprehensive investigation and a report for it for more procedures. But so far, nothing has heard. “

Boniface MWABUKUSI, President of the Tenganica Law Association, says many people fear going out and share their stories for fear of abuse.

He says there is no free independent system that can guarantee sound justice.

He says: “If you are holding the police and the officers ask you to provide a statement about your kidnapping, can you really go to them? You can’t do it.”

“Most people leave it to God. They are afraid. They say if they are following it, things will get worse.”