Warning: This article contains details that some readers may find distressing.

In the wake of his abduction on a highway in Tanzania's main city Dar es Salaam, social media activist Edgar Mwakabela, better known as Sativa, says he came close to death.

He describes in an interview with the BBC how, after kidnapping him on 23 June last year, his captors interrogated him and then ferried him across the country to the remote Katavi region near the Congolese border, more than 1,000km (600 miles) away.

Sativa says he was handcuffed, blindfolded and brutally beaten, including being struck repeatedly on his head, back and legs with the flat side of a machete.

It was extremely painful.

He tells the BBC that those who abducted him wanted to know who was facilitating his activism and why he was criticising the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party, in power since 1977.

Sativa believes those who held him were police officers or other operatives linked to the authorities.

However, the government denies that it targets critics of the state.

Sativa says that on the fourth day after being taken, the violence continued as his captors transported him to the Katavi National Park, filled with dangerous wild animals, and dragged him towards a river.

He believes it was clear that his captors had no intention of letting him live.

Then, he says, came the chilling order shouted from a vehicle behind them: Shoot him!

A trigger was pulled. A bullet went through his skull. His jaw was shattered.

Sativa's captors left - he thought he had been left for dead.

As October's general election edges closer, abductions have become more common, mostly targeting anti-government critics and opposition voices.

Despite suffering life-threatening injuries, he regained consciousness and crawled to a road where wildlife rangers rescued him.

His survival has been described as extraordinary.

The police did not respond to BBC requests for an interview, but their spokesperson, Deputy Commissioner David Misime, stated in June that they do act on information about those missing and conduct an investigation.

The BBC has spoken to families of people reported missing and those who have died, and they have relayed their agony over missing loved ones.