The trend points to deeper structural problems with Africa’s underlying political environment, said Jeffrey Smith, executive director of democracy-focused Vanguard Africa nonprofit.

He said all three countries feature incumbents leveraging state resources to stay in power, partisan security forces as well as flawed legal processes.

“This is really symptomatic of competitive authoritarianism ... where elections are fundamentally imbalanced and skewed in favor of those already in power,” said Smith. “So the real issue is a lack of genuine political competition and accountability.”

Vanguard Africa joins international democracy advocates to urgently call for the immediate release and humane treatment of Tanzanian opposition leaders Tundu Lissu and John Heche, who have been detained under questionable circumstances. Together, we denounce the politically motivated charges, demand due process and transparency, and urge democratic institutions and global actors to hold Tanzania accountable for suppressing dissent and undermining free and fair elections.

The Biya regime appears to be using every tactic to undermine the democratic process, ”says Jeffrey Smith, a human-rights advocate and director of Vanguard Africa, listing restricted media coverage, intimidation and violence against opposition supporters and delays in releasing results. "Taken together, all of this fuels suspicions that the regime is trying to maintain its grip on power despite clear indications that the opposition won at the ballot box,” he says.

It’s a “total abdication of responsibility,” said Jeffrey Smith, of the Washington-based pro-democracy nonprofit Vanguard Africa. “Tyrants can now rob, steal and kill with greater impunity. Dictators are smiling today.”

Jeffrey Smith, founder of Vanguard Africa, a pro-democracy outfit in Washington, sees a “convergence of authoritarian tactics across east Africa”.

Jeffrey Smith, executive director of pro-democracy non-profit Vanguard Africa based in Washington, DC, says that while Tundu Lissu’s case has a high profile, people outside the country have not come to terms with the level of repression in Tanzania.

“Opposition members can’t hold private meetings in their homes,” he says. “And when it does happen, attendees are beaten unconscious, they’re hunted down by authorities, they’re arrested on frivolous charges.

“It really seems all steps are being taken to muzzle the opposition ahead of the October election. The regime knows they can’t win fairly and are doing everything in their power to steal the election before it happens.”

PR firms that work with authoritarian regimes “are helping to sanitize egregious human rights abuses, political repression and violence,” said Jeffrey Smith, executive director of pro-democracy advisory firm Vanguard Africa. “ And in the case of Rwanda, the killing of critics, the disappearance of opposition members, the complete muzzling of any semblance of independent media or human rights.”

Jeffrey Smith, executive director of  the pro-democracy group Vanguard Africa, told RFI: "As expected, the human rights situation in Niger – like other Sahelian countries under military control – has unequivocally spiralled. Civic space has shrunk considerably and violations of civil and political rights, like arbitrary detention, for example, have become the norm." … "As it stands today, President Bazoum and his wife are being held hostage by a wholly unaccountable, unelected military regime, and this is actually the core of the problem.”

Vanguard Africa stands with the Platform for African Democrats in solidarity with Niger’s democratically elected president, Mohamed Bazoum, and call for his immediate, unconditional release after being unlawfully detained for two years by the country’s military junta. #FreeBazoum

“There is definitely a convergence of authoritarian tactics across East Africa,” says Jeffrey Smith, executive director of Vanguard Africa. “We’ve seen the broad criminalisation of free speech and assembly , basic human rights, all carried out with impunity .” Smith and others argue that autocrats are not only learning from one another, but also exploiting a permissive international environment. “Washington, in particular, has shown indifference and an unwillingness to speak out, condemn or threaten consequences for ongoing abuses. That silence is being interpreted as consent,” Smith tells The Africa Report.