Police in Tanzania are investigating the alleged abduction of the country’s former ambassador to Cuba, Humphrey Polepole.
Polepole’s family said he was abducted from his home in Dar es Salaam in the early hours of Monday.
The country’s police in a statement said it is examining claims of his abduction to “establish the truth.”
The ex-diplomat has been a fierce critic of the Samia Suluhu Hassan government after he quit his ambassador job.
President Hassan subsequently stripped him off his diplomatic status following his accusations of corruption, authoritarianism and interference in party politics against her.
The police say Polepole had been invited to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) to provide evidence of various allegations he made on social media against the president, an invitation he is yet to honor.
Polepole’s alleged abduction adds to at least 100 abductions and enforced disappearances targeting critics of President Samia Hassan, according to Tanzanian human rights group THRD.
In a statement, THRD said the wave of abductions serve as a “grim reminder of the shrinking civic space and the increasing risks faced by human rights defenders, journalists, opposition members and ordinary citizens who dare to speak out.”
