Tanzania’s opposition leader returns after 5 years in exile

By EVELYNE MUSAMBI
Associated Press

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Tanzanian opposition leader Tundu Lissu has arrived home after five years in exile, three weeks after the country’s president lifted a ban on opposition rallies. He arrived at the main Julius Nyerere International Airport on Wednesday afternoon and was received by opposition party officials and greeted by supporters who lined the road outside the airport. Lissu was shot at several times by gunmen in 2017 in the runup to the 2020 election and that marked his first departure to Belgium. Lissu’s return comes after Tanzania’s first female president, Samia Suluhu Hassan, lifted a six-year-long ban on opposition rallies imposed by her autocratic predecessor, a move that was cautiously welcomed as a gain for democracy by the main opposition party, Chadema.