Global Witness is growing increasingly concerned for the safety of communities and campaigners challenging the East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) - set to run through
Since last month, nine community members have been repeatedly summoned by police, forced to travel around 120km back and forth to the station, where they are reportedly interrogated but not charged with any offenses. This week, they had their phones confiscated and sent for "inspection", while they were forced to sign statements about their relationship with climate activists.
Police have forced the community members to return to the station twice this week alone, as fears grow their phones will be used to track down and criminalise other campaigners. Today, police threatened that their questioning and summoning of campaigners won't stop until they give up information.
These interrogations come just months after Global Witness received information that police were ordered to arrest Tanzanian activist Richard Senkondo, 32, so he could be interrogated by the country's national intelligence and security agency, the Tanzania Intelligence and Security Service (TISS). Richard has been living in hiding ever since.
Hanna Hindstrom, Senior Investigator at Global Witness, said:
"The targeting of critics of the EACOP pipeline casts a chilling shadow over environmental activism in
"
Police's search for Richard and the harassment of communities is the latest in a crackdown on defenders linked to the EACOP pipeline, who TISS officers have also previously interrogated, according to a 2023 Global Witness investigation into the impacts of the pipeline on communities, in which Richard is featured.
The report notes that at least 47 defenders protesting oil or EACOP were arrested in
Since publication of the Global Witness report, the crackdown has continued. On
In early
Until recently, the situation in
Zaki Mamdoo, coordinator of the Stop EACOP campaign, said:
"The silence from the diplomatic corps in
Hanna Hindstrom, Senior Investigator - Land and Environmental Defenders
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