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Tanzania opposition asks telecoms firm to react to data-sharing accusation

Tanzania's primary opposition celebration has called for telecoms firm Tigo to react to a previous staff member's accusation that the company helped the government track the place of a challenger who was later on targeted in a. stopped working assassination effort.

A former employee at Tigo's moms and dad company, Millicom,. told a British court this month that Tigo had shared mobile. phone information with the federal government revealing the area of. opposition lawmaker Tundu Lissu in the weeks before the attack.

Lissu's vehicle was sprayed with bullets in September 2017 by. unidentified opponents, according to court filings seen .

I have informed (attorney) Bob Amsterdam today to start a. case versus Tigo and the government of Tanzania, Lissu told a. news conference in Dar es Salaam, adding that he does not trust. regional courts to manage the case.

We will require Tigo to inform us who they were communicating. with. Who from the federal government asked to track me 24 hours. They need to tell us names.

In its own court filings this month, Millicom said it had. found out in late August or early September 2017 of concerns. about a regional political leader's cellphone information being passed to a. federal government agency.

It stated the people involved were disciplined and. additional training was offered to Millicom subsidiaries about. how to react to ask for business data.

The business rejected allegations in a suit submitted by the. previous worker, Michael Clifford, that Clifford had been. dismissed for raising concerns about the tracking of Lissu's. place information.

The court filings were initially reported on Tuesday by British. paper The Guardian. Spokespeople for Millicom and the. Tanzanian federal government did not respond to ask for remark by. Reuters on Wednesday.

Tanzania's then-president John Magufuli condemned the attack. on Lissu in 2017. No one has actually been apprehended or charged in. connection with it.

President Samia Suluhu Hassan, who prospered Magufuli. after his death in 2021, promised to lift restrictions on. federal government critics enforced by Magufuli, however rights groups say. authorities have been targeting opponents before regional elections. in December. The government has rejected the allegations. On Monday, Lissu was amongst several opposition leaders briefly. jailed by cops before they might march to protest versus. what they stated were killings and kidnappings of government. critics.

(source: Reuters)