Tanzania’s jailed opposition leader Tundu Lissu ends brief hunger strike

Lissu, who faces treason charge carrying a possible death sentence, refused food after being denied access to lawyers.

Tanzania’s jailed opposition leader Tundu Lissu has ended a brief hunger strike after prison authorities allowed him to meet privately with his lawyers, his lawyer has said.

Lissu, who leads the opposition’s Party for Democracy and Progress (CHADEMA) ‌and came second in the 2020 presidential election, began refusing food on Monday after his lawyers were denied entry to the prison where he is being held, party spokesperson Brenda Rupia wrote on X.

“Lissu did not take his tea, breakfast or lunch,” his lawyer Rugemeleza Nshala told The Associated Press on Tuesday. Nshala said Lissu ended the strike after lunchtime, following the meeting with his brother.

His detention, along with the alleged abductions of ⁠government critics, has led to scrutiny of the human rights record of President Samia Suluhu Hassan, who won a 2025 election.

The government has rejected accusations of ⁠widespread abuses and said it is committed to respecting human rights. It ordered an investigation into reports of abductions in 2024, though no official findings have been made public.

‘Treason’

Accounts of Lissu’s protest have differed. While CHADEMA spokesperson Rupia said on X that Lissu began refusing food on Monday, Nshala told AP that the strike began on Tuesday morning, after promised private consultations failed to take place.

Tanzania’s prisons service denied the reports, telling the Swahili-language daily Mwananchi that Lissu was safe and was not on hunger strike.

Nshala had raised concerns about Lissu’s health, saying he relies on medication.

Lissu survived being shot 16 times in a 2017 assassination attempt. He was arrested in April 2025 after addressing a rally calling for electoral reforms, and was charged with treason over what prosecutors said was a speech urging the public to rebel and disrupt last year’s general election.

He has pleaded not guilty, and his lawyers say the charges are politically motivated. A judgement is due on November 6.

On Tuesday, CHADEMA announced seven days of mourning, from Thursday to November 4, to mark the anniversary of the October 29 election. A government-appointed inquiry found that at least 518 people were killed in the violence that followed the vote. CHADEMA puts the death toll at about 2,000, a figure the United Nations said it could not verify.