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Following a laboratory investigation, eight children and one adult in Zanzibar are found to have died of chelonitoxism after consuming sea turtle meat, a local delicacy. Another 78 people were hospitalized.
2024-03-10

The Czech Republic reports their first cases of the 501.V2 variant first detected in South Africa in a group of people who travelled to Zanzibar.
2021-02-25

Zanzibar's first Vice President, Seif Sharif Hamad, dies from COVID-19.
2021-02-17

Tanzanian political party Alliance for Change and Transparency (ACT Wazalendo) reports that its Zanzibar presidential candidate Seif Sharif Hamad has been arrested following condemnation by him and the political party of the shooting deaths of at least seven civilians amid unrest over alleged fraud on the eve of presidential election. Police confirm Hamad's arrest but do not comment.
2020-10-27

The Millennium Challenge Corporation, a United States foreign aid agency, pulls $472m of funding for a Tanzanian electricity project after concluding that the election held in Zanzibar "was neither inclusive nor representative". Zanzibar, a semi-autonomous part of Tanzania, held a rerun of its election that was boycotted by the opposition after it was previously annulled because of supposed fraud.
2016-03-29

A rerun of Zanzibar's presidential election takes place amid an opposition boycott. The election originally occurred at the same time as Tanzania's general election in 2015 but was annulled because of supposed fraud.
2016-03-20

Tanzania's opposition Chadema party presidential candidate Edward Lowassa calls for a recount of Sunday's election for the presidency before official results are announced tomorrow. Meanwhile, the election commission chief of semi-autonomous Zanzibar nullifies their results, which opposition presidential candidate Seif Sharif Hamad of the Civic United Front announced he won on Monday. The United States said it's "gravely alarmed" and called for reversal of the annulment.
2015-10-28

The passenger ferry "MS King Seaways", en route from Newcastle, England, to Amsterdam in the Netherlands, catches fire in the North Sea; a man is arrested on suspicion of arson.
2013-12-29

78 people are killed and 66 are reported missing after the MV Skagit, a ferry carrying 280 people sinks off the coast of Zanzibar on its way from Tanzania.
2012-07-18

At least 240 bodies have been recovered off the coast of Zanzibar following Saturday's ferry sinking.
2011-09-12