Source: Amnesty International –
Content warning: The following text contains descriptions and images depicting violence, death, police brutality, and police killings. Reader discretion is advised.
Tanzanian security forces used unnecessary or disproportionate force, including lethal force, to suppress election protests between 29 October and 3 November 2025, showing a shocking disregard for the right to life and for freedom of peaceful assembly as hundreds of people were reported killed or injured across the country, Amnesty International said today.
New research details how security forces fired live ammunition and teargas directly at protesters and other individuals who posed no imminent threat of death or serious injury. The organization found that security forces used firearms recklessly, injuring and killing bystanders, and abusively deployed tear gas in residential areas and into people’s homes.
The violence that security forces inflicted on protesters and other people who were just going about their daily lives was shocking and unacceptable, and yet another sign of growing intolerance in Tanzania.
Agnès Callamard
Amnesty International’s Secretary General
Amid a nationwide internet shutdown, security officials subjected individuals to beatings and other forms of ill-treatment, denied the wounded access to healthcare, arrested some still in need of care, and collected bodies of victims of their brutality from mortuaries, taking them to unknown places.
“The violence that security forces inflicted on protesters and other people who were just going about their daily lives was shocking and unacceptable, and yet another sign of growing intolerance in Tanzania,” said Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General.
The formation of the commission is the first of many steps that must be followed to deliver accountability. The authorities must now ensure that all investigations are independent, thorough and impartial.
Agnès Callamard
On 14 November, Tanzania’s president announced a commission of inquiry into the killings of protesters. However, civil society members have expressed concerns about its independence.
“The formation of the commission is the first of many steps that must be followed to deliver accountability. The authorities must now ensure that all investigations are independent, thorough and impartial. No one should be shielded from justice: those who ordered, enabled and used unlawful force must be held accountable regardless of their position. Every grieving family deserves answers, justice and the chance to seek reparations. Anything less would be an exercise in whitewashing abuses,” said Agnès Callamard.
Between 3 and 28 November, Amnesty International interviewed 35 people, including survivors of gunshot and teargas canister injuries, eyewitnesses, lawyers assisting arrested protesters and healthcare professionals who treated injured victims, as well as relatives of those killed. Amnesty International’s digital investigations team, the Evidence Lab, verified 26 videos and six photos posted on social media between 2 and 18 November or shared directly with Amnesty International staff by trusted sources.
Tanzanian authorities did not respond to Amnesty’s request for comment.