Tanzania's jailed opposition leader Tundu Lissu ended a brief hunger strike on Tuesday after prison authorities allowed him to meet privately with his younger brother, his lead lawyer told The Associated Press.

Source: Associated Press

"Lissu did not take his tea, breakfast or lunch," his lead lawyer Rugemeleza Nshala told AP by telephone. Nshala said Lissu ended the strike after lunchtime on Tuesday, following the private meeting with his brother.

Lissu, who leads Tanzania's main opposition party Chadema, had refused food in protest over restrictions on court-ordered confidential legal consultations, Nshala said. He had planned to begin the strike on Monday and postponed it after prison authorities promised private access; when those consultations failed to take place on Monday, he began refusing food on Tuesday morning, Nshala said.

Accounts differ over the protest

Chadema spokesperson Brenda Rupia posted on X that the protest started on Monday once the legal team was refused entry to the prison — a different timeline from Nshala's account to AP. Tanzania's prisons service told the Swahili-language newspaper Mwananchi that Lissu was safe and was not refusing food, AP reported.

What is solid

  • Lissu is Chadema's leader and has been detained for more than 18 months, according to AP.
  • He was arrested on April 9, 2025, after addressing a rally calling for electoral reforms, and was charged with treason the following day, according to AP.
  • The treason charge carries a possible death sentence, he has pleaded not guilty, and a judgment is scheduled for November 6, according to AP.

What is only claimed

  • When the hunger strike began: Nshala told AP it began Tuesday morning; Chadema spokesperson Brenda Rupia said on X it began Monday.
  • Whether he was refusing food at all: Tanzania's prisons service told Mwananchi he was safe and not on hunger strike, AP reported.
  • The death toll from violence after the October 2025 election: a government-appointed inquiry found at least 518 people were killed, Chadema puts the toll at about 2,000, and the United Nations said it could not verify the higher figure, according to AP.

Nshala had earlier raised concern about the health implications of a hunger strike because Lissu relies on medication, and said prison authorities had on some occasions barred access to Lissu altogether, AP reported. Prison authorities and the government issued no public statements on the hunger strike, according to AP.

Lissu survived being shot 16 times in a 2017 assassination attempt and has spent periods in exile citing threats to his life, AP reported. His lawyers say the treason case is politically motivated — a claim attributed to his legal team; prosecutors say his speech urged the public to disrupt the general election, according to AP.

On Tuesday, Chadema announced seven days of mourning, from Thursday to November 4, to mark the anniversary of the October 29 election, AP reported. Lissu's detention has drawn scrutiny of President Samia Suluhu Hassan's human rights record; the government has rejected accusations of widespread abuses, said it is committed to respecting human rights, and ordered an investigation in 2024 into reports of abductions, though no official findings have been made public, according to AP.