Focus on Africa BBC Africa Eye investigates Tanzania abductions
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Feb 2, 2026 Peter Murimi, a BBC reporter who led the Africa Eye investigation, walks through harrowing accounts of abductions and alleged police abuse in Tanzania. Multiple survivors and medical records are described. The discussion also touches on how language evolves with West African words added to the Oxford English Dictionary.
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Survivor Escaped Failed Assassination
- Edgar Mokabela (Sativa) was abducted, interrogated at Oyster Bay police station, driven across the country, beaten and shot in the head in a failed assassination attempt.
- He crawled from Katavi National Park and survived, providing rare first-hand evidence of enforced disappearance methods.
Survival Creates Investigative Footprint
- Sativa's survival creates a traceable record that others' enforced disappearances lacked.
- His testimony lets investigators infer patterns of abduction and off-the-books removals.
Multiple Survivors Name Same Officer
- Boniface Mwangi and Agatha Atuhire described being interrogated and tortured after encounters with a senior officer named Mafuele.
- Multiple survivors independently named Mafuele as present during interrogations before their abuses occurred.