Kenyan journalist among two CPJ officials arrested in Tanzania

A former Nation reporter is among two Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) officials being held in Tanzania.

CPJ is now calling on authorities in Tanzania should immediately release Angela Quintal, Africa program coordinator at the CPJ, and Muthoki Mumo, CPJ’s sub-Saharan Africa representative, and return their passports.

It said officers who identified themselves as working with the Tanzanian immigration authority detained Quintal and Mumo in their hotel room in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, this evening, according to Quintal. The officials searched the pair’s belongings and would not return their passports when asked. Quintal and Mumo were then escorted from the hotel and have been taken to an unknown location. They were in the country on a reporting mission for CPJ.

“We are concerned for the safety of our colleagues Angela Quintal and Muthoki Mumo, who were detained while legally visiting Tanzania,” said Joel Simon, CPJ’s executive director. “We call on the authorities to immediately release them and return their passports.”