Tanzanian security forces cracking down on protests during and after the country's disputed 2025 general elections killed and injured people who were not participating in those demonstrations, Human Rights Watch said today.
Human Rights Watch documented the killing of 31 people not participating in protests and received credible information of another 19 such deaths. Based on initial research into the number of people killed countrywide, Human Rights Watch believes that at least hundreds were killed. The government commission established to investigate the election-related violence should investigate these and other abuses, and ensure accountability.
"The Tanzanian authorities' brazen crackdown on dissent during the elections devastated many people's lives," said Oryem Nyeko, senior Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch, "The commission of inquiry should deliver justice for the victims and accountability and ensure that such violations do not happen again."
Following weeks of calls for protests against intensifying political repression, protesters took to the streets in Dar es Salaam and other cities on election day for the president and parliament, October 29, 2025. Police officers used beatings, lethal force and tear gas to disperse protesters and enforce a five-day nationwide lockdown, killing and injuring many, including people who were not protesting. In some cases, witnesses said, military and police officers set up roadblocks and prevented wounded people from reaching hospitals. Some of them died.
Between October 2025 and February 2026, Human Rights Watch interviewed 48 people, including 34 witnesses, 7 journalists, and 5 civil society members and activists, in 6 of Tanzania's administrative regions - Arusha, Dar es Salaam, Geita, Mwanza, Ruvuma, and Mjini Magharibi in Zanzibar, and reviewed court documents and media reports. Researchers analyzed 15 photographs and videos sent to researchers by witnesses or posted to social media corroborating witness accounts.
Police officers enforcing the lockdown beat and shot at people, including vendors, at a market in Buhongwa, a Mwanza neighborhood, on the morning of October 30, killing at least 7 and injuring about 50 others, according to witnesses. "The police were shooting directly at any group of people," one witness said.
On October 30, a 31-year-old man said, police officers responding to protests in Songea, in southwestern Tanzania, shot him at around 4 p.m. as he returned from work: "Because the shots were being fired indiscriminately, you would just hear the sound of gunshots sometimes above or passing below. So, I didn't hear the gunshot, I was just startled to find my leg numb."
The authorities arrested over 2,000 people, including children, accusing many of destroying government property and of treason, which is punishable by death. International law prohibits arbitrary arrest and detention.
A 39-year-old man who works as a boda boda (motorcycle taxi) driver said police in Dar es Salaam arrested him on October 30, as he transported a customer. He said they falsely accused him of participating in the protests, severely beat him, and charged him with treason.
He was finally released along with hundreds of others on December 24,after President Samia Suluhu Hassan told the public prosecutions director to review the cases of those arrested. The driver said that he is unable to work due to leg injuries from the beatings.
Following international pressure, on November 18, the Office of the President formed an "independent commission" of former officials and retired civil servants to "investigate events that led to the breach of peace during and after the general elections." It is unclear whether the mandate covers people killed and injured while not protesting and arbitrary arrests. The commission is set to conclude its work on April 3, 2026.
On March 6, Human Rights Watch wrote to the Tanzania Police Force and to the Commission of Inquiry to share the findings and to ask for information, but has not received a response.
Domestic, regional, and international human rights standards, including the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, to which Tanzania is a party, prohibit the excessive use of force by law enforcement officials and provide the right to a remedy for gross human rights violations.
Under the UN Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms, security forces should use force only when non-violent means are ineffective and only in proportion to the seriousness of the offense and the legitimate objective to be achieved. Law enforcement officers should use firearms only to defend themselves or others from an imminent threat of death or serious injury, or, in some circumstances, where necessary in response to a serious crime involving a grave threat to life. The intentional lethal use of firearms is permitted only when strictly unavoidable to protect life.
Concerned governments and Tanzania's developmental partners should publicly call on the government to thoroughly investigate these abuses, prosecute those responsible, and ensure reparations, Human Rights Watch said. They should also support civil society's role in documenting human rights violations.
"The Tanzanian authorities should recognize that impunity for rights abuses encourages further political violence," Nyeko said, "They should end the continuing political repression and the detention of government critics, civil society and media."
