DAR ES SALAAM, April 14, 2024 (AFP) – Heavy rains and flooding have killed at least 58 people, including children, in Tanzania since the beginning of April, a government spokesman said on Sunday. “From April 1 to April 14, 2024, there were 58 deaths caused by the heavy rains, which led to flooding,” Mobhare Matinyi told a press briefing, stressing that the coastal region of the East African country was one of the worst affected. […]
Tag: Tanzania
Tanzania says student abducted by Hamas is dead
DAR ES SALAAM, Nov 18, 2023 (AFP) – Tanzania’s foreign ministry has confirmed the death of one of two citizens who have been missing since Hamas’s October 7 attacks across southern Israel. The Israeli government had named two students from Tanzania — 22-year-old Clemence Felix Mtenga and 21-year-old Joshua Loitu Mollel — among those missing since the militant attack six weeks ago. “It’s with great sadness we confirm the death of Clemence Felix Mtenga,” a […]
Tanzania faces power shortages, rationing due to drought
DAR ES SALAAM, Sept 28, 2023 (AFP) – Drought and maintenance issues have forced Tanzania to ration electricity, the national provider said, as power shortages roil the East African nation. The authorities imposed rationing measures last week, with the Tanzania Electric Supply Company Limited (Tanesco) saying on Wednesday that the shortages would end by March next year. Tanzania currently has the capacity to generate about 1,900 megawatts, according to Gissima Nyamo-Hanga, the new managing director […]
19 killed after plane plunges into Lake Victoria in Tanzania
Tanzania | AFP | The death toll from Sunday’s plane crash in Tanzania has jumped to 19, Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa said, after the Precision Air flight with dozens of passengers aboard plunged into Lake Victoria while approaching the northwestern city of Bukoba. “All Tanzanians are with you in mourning the 19 people who lost lives during this accident,” Majaliwa told a crowd after arriving at Bukoba airport, where the flight had been scheduled to […]
Environment watchdogs condemn arrest of Ugandan activists
KAMPALA, Uganda (AFP) – Environmental watchdogs Saturday condemned the arrest of six Ugandan rights campaigners as a coordinated effort to silence critics of a contested energy project involving French oil giant Total. The activists from Africa Institute for Energy Governance (AFIEGO), the country’s highest-profile environmental defenders group, were detained without charge at a police station outside Kampala on Friday, the organisation said in a statement. Its French partners, Amis de la Terre France (Friends of the […]
Tanzania, Uganda, ink deal on $3.5b oil pipeline project
DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania (AFP) — Tanzania and Uganda signed an agreement Sunday to commence construction on a 1,445-kilometre (900 mile) oil pipeline through East Africa that conservation groups say threatens livelihoods and fragile ecosytems. The project focuses on oilfields in landlocked Uganda discovered in 2006 and proposes pumping the crude to the coast via a pipeline across Tanzania at an estimated cost of $3.5 billion. The multi-national plan is led by French petroleum giant […]
6.0 magnitude quake strikes off Tanzania: USGS
NAIROBI, Kenya (AFP) — A shallow 6.0 magnitude earthquake struck southeast of the Tanzanian financial centre of Dar es Salaam late Wednesday, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said. The offshore quake struck at a depth of 15.5 kilometers (9.6 miles) just after 8 pm (1700 GMT) local time. The epicenter was 66 kilometers southeast of Vikindu, USGS said. Vikindu is just outside Dar es Salaam. There were no immediate reports of damage, but the tremor […]
Miner becomes millionaire after finding biggest tanzanite stones
DAR ES SALAAM Tanzania (AFP) — A Tanzanian small-scale miner has become a multi-millionaire after uncovering two of the biggest of the country’s precious tanzanite stones ever found and selling them to the government. Saniniu Kuryan Laizer, 52, found the stones weighing 9.27 and 5.1 kilograms (20.4 and 11.2 pounds) respectively in the northern Mirerani hills, an area which President John Magufuli had fenced off in 2018 to stop smuggling of the gem. He sold […]
Uganda army fights voracious desert locusts
By Michael O’HAGAN Agence France-Presse OTUKE, Uganda (AFP) — Under a warm morning sun scores of weary soldiers stare as millions of yellow locusts rise into the northern Ugandan sky, despite hours spent spraying vegetation with chemicals in an attempt to kill them. From the tops of shea trees, fields of pea plants and tall grass savanna, the insects rise in a hypnotic murmuration, disappearing quickly to wreak devastation elsewhere. The soldiers and agricultural officers will […]
Death toll climbs to 75 in Tanzania fuel tanker blast
MOROGORO, Tanzania (AFP) — The death toll from a fuel truck explosion in Tanzania rose to 75 on Monday as four more people succumbed to their injuries, a hospital official said. “We deplore four new deaths. Their bodies are currently resting at the morgue while we wait for relatives to identify them,” said Aminiel Aligaesha, spokesman for the National Hospital in the economic capital, Dar es Salaam. Funeral services which began Sunday were expected […]
First death as Cyclone Kenneth smashes into Mozambique
by Greg Walton and Joaquim Nhamirre Agence France Presse MAPUTO, Mozambique (AFP) — A powerful cyclone smashed into northern Mozambique, leaving one person dead on Friday, barely a month after a super-storm hit the centre of the country, devastating the area and leaving hundreds dead. Category three Cyclone Kenneth, packing winds of 160 kilometres (100 miles) an hour, struck the north coast’s Cabo Delgado province late Thursday after swiping the Comoros islands. The United […]
Mozambique braces for Cyclone Kenneth
A powerful cyclone was set to make landfall in northern Mozambique Thursday, barely a month after a super-storm slammed into the country’s centre, leaving hundreds dead and causing devastation. As Cyclone Kenneth barrelled towards to the northeastern coast after swiping the Comoros, the UN warned of flash flooding and landslides. Dozens of schools were closed and all flights between the capital Maputo and Pemba were cancelled. Forecasters at Meteo-France warned that Kenneth could trigger waves […]
