Tanzania opposition asks telecoms firm to respond to data-sharing accusation
25/09/2024 15:53
NAIROBI, Sept 25 (Reuters) - Tanzania's main opposition
party has called for telecoms firm Tigo to respond to a former
employee's accusation that the company helped the government
track the location of an opponent who was later targeted in a
failed assassination attempt.
A former worker at Tigo's parent company, Millicom MICC.F ,
told a British court this month that Tigo had shared mobile
phone data with the government showing the location of
opposition lawmaker Tundu Lissu in the weeks before the attack.
Lissu's car was sprayed with bullets in September 2017 by
unknown assailants, according to court filings seen by Reuters.
"Tigo should provide in depth information to the public and
its customers about the security of their information!" John
Mrema, a spokesperson for Lissu's CHADEMA party, wrote on X late
on Tuesday.
In its own court filings this month, Millicom said it had
learned in late August or early September 2017 of concerns
"about a local politician’s mobile phone data being passed to a
government agency".
It said the individuals involved were disciplined and
additional training was provided to Millicom subsidiaries about
how to respond to requests for company data.
The company denied allegations in a lawsuit filed by the
former employee, Michael Clifford, that Clifford had been
dismissed for raising concerns about the tracking of Lissu's
location data.
The court filings were first reported on Tuesday by British
newspaper The Guardian. Spokespeople for Millicom and the
Tanzanian government did not respond to requests for comment by
Reuters on Wednesday.
Tanzania's then-president John Magufuli condemned the attack
on Lissu in 2017. No one has been arrested or charged in
connection with it.
President Samia Suluhu Hassan, who succeeded Magufuli after
his death in 2021, pledged to lift restrictions on government
critics imposed by Magufuli, but rights groups say authorities
have been targeting opponents before local elections in
December. The government has denied the accusations.
On Monday, Lissu was among several opposition leaders
briefly arrested by police before they could march to protest
against what they said were killings and abductions of
government critics.
(Reporting by Hereward Holland in Nairobi and Sam Tobin in
London; Editing by George Obulutsa, Aaron Ross and Timothy
Heritage)
((hereward.holland@thomsonreuters.com; +254 20 499 1232;
Reuters Messaging:
hereward.holland.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))