Activist Sativa tells the BBC how he was killed for death

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

Following his kidnapping on a highway in the main city of Tanzania, Dar es Salaam, social media activist Edgar Mwakabela, better known as Sativa, said he came to death.

He described in an interview with the BBC how, after having kidnapped him on June 23 of last year, his kidnappers questioned him, then transported him across the country in the region distant from Katavi near the Congolese border, more than 1,000 km (600 miles).

Sativa says he was handcuffed, blindfolded and brutally beaten, especially being hit several times on the head, back and legs with the flat side of a machete.

“It was extremely painful.”

He said to the BBC that those who removed him wanted to know who facilitated his activism and why he criticized the Chama Chama Mapinduzi (CCM) party, in power since 1977.

Sativa thinks that those who held him were police or other agents related to the authorities.

However, the government denies that it targets criticism of the state.

Sativa says that the fourth day after being taken, the violence continued as her captors transported her to Katavi National Park, full of dangerous wild animals and dragged her to a river.

He believes it was clear that his captors had no intention of letting him live.

Then, he said, came the screaming screeching order of a vehicle behind them: “Draw on him!”

A trigger was taken. A bullet crossed his skull. His jaw was broken.

The Ravisseurs of Sativa left – he thought he had been left dead.

As the general electoral edges of October, the kidnappings have become more common, targeting mainly anti-government critics and the voices of the opposition.

Every two weeks, police or publications on social networks announce a missing person. Some are never found and others reappear with disturbing stories of violence or torture – and some have been found dead.

The case of Sativa offers a rare account of a survivor.

Despite the fatal injuries, he regained consciousness and crawled on a road where the fauna rangers saved him.

He would need long and specialized treatment, and his survival has been described as “extraordinary”.

The police did not respond to BBC requests for an interview, but in a video declaration published in the media in June, their spokesperson, deputy commissioner David Misime, said that they are acting on information on missing people and conduct an investigation.

The BBC spoke to families of people who have been missing and those who died, and they have relayed their agony on dear missing beings.

The 25 -year -old Portrait Shedrack Chaula Portrait is among those still lacking.

It has not been seen or heard for over a year. In June 2024, he published a Tiktok video which became viral of him burning the photo of President Samia Suluhu and the insulting.

He was arrested, found guilty of cyberbullying and released after paying a fine. A month later, it was removed by unknown individuals.

“We do not know when or if he is found. When he was arrested, at least we knew where he was. Now, even the authorities say they don’t know,” his father, Yusuf Chaula, at the BBC.

He said that in August 2024, three men arrived in a car with tinted windows and seized him. They had not identified themselves explained why or where they took it.

“We have made every effort. We are exhausted. We visited each detention center. We went to prisons and police stations at different levels – local, district and regional,” he said.

Police insisted that an investigation is underway.

“If we knew where he is, or where he is detained, or even if we knew that he had died and had been buried somewhere, at least we would have a tomb to visit,” says Chaula, fighting, struggling with the torment of unanswered questions and the lack of closure.

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

They expressed the alarm in the face of “torture to silence the opposition and criticism” before the elections, and called on the government to “immediately” stop it.

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch rights groups recently accused the government of being behind arrests, abuse and forced disappearances.

The authorities have denied allegations.

The police have identified at least a dozen kidnapping cases since last year, some of which have since been resolved, many of which go back to 2019.

On June 18, police announced that the surveys had led to the discovery of certain victims who were still alive.

They added that some cases involved self-stage kidnappings, while others were born from romantic relationships that have become acids, superstitious beliefs and real estate disputes.

“Police forces urge relatives, friends and the public to remain calm while the security forces continue their investigations to discover the facts surrounding these incidents,” said Commissioner Misime.

The president urged the police to end the disturbing incidents of the missing people – a directive that many Tanzanians hope to lead to justice.

In May, the opposition activist and politician Mpaluka Nyangali, widely known as Mdude, was removed from his home in Mbeya, in southern Tanzania, in a violent incident witness by his wife and young child.

There were blood stains on the scene, showing the brutality of the attack.

Since then, the members of the main opposition party Chadema have launched a search through Mbeya and have held watches of prayer requiring police responses, which they suspect of being accomplices of the incident.

To date, Mdude’s wife, Siji Mbugi, has not heard of him.

“I pray for the release of my husband, I think he is detained by the police and the authorities. MDUDE did nothing. He did not stretch anything to anyone, I beg his release. If he had problems, then take him to justice,” she said.

On July 9, the High Court of Mbeya rejected a case which she deposited above the disappearance of her husband.

She had testified that armed people identifying themselves as the police had stormed their home late at night and assaulted Mdude, before taking her.

During the procedure, the Mbeya police admitted having investigated the possibility that one of their officers played a role in the kidnapping of MDUDE.

Activists have described the rejection of the case as a major setback in the continuous fight for justice for the besieged opposition of Tanzania.

No arrest or prosecution was carried out as part of incidents, although the police claim that surveys were underway.

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

Kenyan Boniface Mwangi and Ugandan Agather Atuhaire, said they had been arrested and sexually tortured after their arrival in Tanzania on May 19 to observe the trial of the Lissu Tunu opposition chief, which faces accusations of betrayal.

The fate of Mwangi and Atuhaire was unknown for several days. The two were abandoned near the borders of their country.

But Jumanne Muliro, commander of the Dar Es Salaam’s special police area, told the BBC at the time that their allegations were “hearing” and asked them to present evidence for investigations. They have since submitted a case to the regional court of justice of East Africa on this subject.

Their test threw a projector on the issue of forced disappearances of government criticism, opposition personalities and human rights defenders in Tanzania.

“No one provides answers,” said Maduhu William, a legal and human Rights Center (LHRC) activist, adding that security agencies regularly promise to conduct an in -depth investigation, but the case stops there.

“In the end, we do not get feedback on what happens to these (cases),” he said, citing the example of Ali Kibao, a senior Chadema official, who was killed last year after being kidnapped, beaten and dried up with acid.

“Even the president (Samia) ordered the security forces in Tanzania to conduct an in-depth investigation and to submit a report for an additional action. But so far, nothing has been heard,” he said.

Boniface Mwabukusi, the president of Tanganyika Law Society, says that many people are afraid of going out and sharing their stories for fear of victimization.

He says that there is no free and independent system that can ensure appropriate justice.

“If you are in police custody and the same officers ask you to make a declaration on your removal, can you really go? You can’t,” he said.

“Most people, they leave God. They are afraid. They say that if they continue the question, things will get worse.”