Tanzania: 4 Dead in Shooting

Four people have been killed and six others were left injured after an unidentified gunman opened fire near the French embassy in Tanzania.

On Wednesday, 25 August, the assailant appeared in Dar es Salaam’s Salenda area – the city’s diplomatic and economic hub – where the embassy is located. Then, using a pistol, he fatally shot two police officers at an intersection.

After removing rifles from the officers’ bodies, he walked to the embassy’s guardhouse, shooting another police officer as well as a security guard at close-range.

Sometime later on Twitter, President Samia Suluhu Hassan wrote that the assailant – holed up in the guardhouse – had been “neutralised” after he was shot dead by police officers who were called to the scene. He also offered his condolences to the families of the four victims.

Both the assailant’s identity and motive behind the attacks have yet to be established, although police authorities speculate that it may be connected to Tanzania’s role in sending troops to fight Islamists in Mozambique.