A part of the state of Tanzania, consisting of five island regions located on the islands of Unguja and Pemba. Since the end of the XVII century, Zanzibar was under the authority of the Arab Sultan, who was under the protectorate of Oman. Zanzibar used to be a large center of the slave trade. In the XIX century, the islands became the object of the colonial expansion of European powers and turned into a protectorate of Great Britain. In 1964, after an uprising that overthrew the power of the Arab minority, an agreement about the creation of the United Republic of Tanzania was signed with the newly independent British colony of Tanganyika. Within Tanzania, Zanzibar is seen as a union state with a special status. It has its own parliament and government.
The ethnic identity of the population of Zanzibar is based on several components: religion (99% of the population of Zanzibar are Muslims, while throughout the Tanzania the share of the Muslim population professing is 35%), historical background (the difference of the colonial system) and a specific geographical position.
Despite the constitutional guarantees of Zanzibar's autonomy, the relations between the island and the central government are complex. The Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM; Party of the Revolution), which dominates the country, retains control over the region, but, unlike the mainland, there is a strong opposition in Zanzibar in the face of the Civic United Front (CUF).
Since 2010, the activity of The Association for Muslim Mobilization and Propagation Group (UAMSHO), a secessionist organization whose goal is to achieve independence of Zanzibar became the new source of tension in Zanzibar. Under these conditions, the compromise reached between the Chama Cha Mapinduzi and the Civic United Front in 2010 on creating a coalition government in the region (the power-sharing model) was destroyed. The results of the 2015 elections were canceled, which caused a new surge of violence.
