Amnesty International cited extensive evidence that police and other security personnel fired live ammunition and tear gas directly at protesters and bystanders who posed no imminent threat.
Tanzanian security forces used unnecessary and disproportionate force, including lethal force, to suppress election-related protests between 29 October and 3 November 2025, killing and injuring hundreds of people across the country, the Amnesty International has said.
In a report released on Friday, the global human rights organisation accused Tanzanian authorities of showing a “shocking disregard for the right to life and for freedom of peaceful assembly.”
Amnesty International cited extensive evidence that police and other security personnel fired live ammunition and tear gas directly at protesters and bystanders who posed no imminent threat.
According to Amnesty International, security forces also engaged in widespread abuses during the crackdown, including beating detainees, denying injured people access to medical care, arresting wounded protesters from hospitals, and collecting bodies from mortuaries before taking them to unknown locations, allegedly to conceal evidence of unlawful killings.
Amnesty International noted that its research revealed how security forces fired live rounds and tear gas at close range, often without warning, and used firearms recklessly in crowded areas, killing or injuring people who were not involved in protests.
Tear gas was also deployed abusively in residential neighbourhoods and fired into people’s homes.
The organisation said these violations took place amid a nationwide internet shutdown, which limited the flow of information and made it harder for victims and witnesses to seek help or share evidence.
“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.
On 14 November, Tanzania’s president announced the establishment of a commission of inquiry into the killings of protesters.
However, Amnesty International noted that civil society groups have raised serious concerns about the independence and credibility of the commission.
“The formation of the commission is the first of many steps that must be followed to deliver accountability,” Callamard said.
“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.”
Between 3 and 28 November, Amnesty International said it interviewed 35 people, including survivors of gunshot and tear gas injuries, eyewitnesses to shootings, lawyers assisting arrested protesters, healthcare professionals who treated victims, and relatives of those killed.
Amnesty International said that its digital investigations team, the Evidence Lab, verified 26 videos and six photographs posted on social media between 2 and 18 November, or shared directly with Amnesty staff by trusted sources.
The footage and images, the organisation said, corroborate testimonies of unlawful killings, excessive use of force and mistreatment by security forces.
However, Tanzanian authorities did not respond to Amnesty International’s request for comment.
Three healthcare professionals working in public hospitals in Dar es Salaam, Arusha and Mwanza told Amnesty that hundreds of people with gunshot wounds were admitted for treatment between 29 and 31 October alone.
Most of the injured were young men, but women and children were also among the victims.
“They had suffered injuries to the head, groin, legs, neck, stomach, buttocks, back and chest,” Amnesty International reported.
Healthcare workers from Arusha and Dar es Salaam said hundreds of dead bodies were brought to their hospitals during the same period, with some left outside due to a lack of space in the morgues.
The Evidence Lab verified a video showing at least 70 bodies piled on the floor and on stretchers inside the morgue at Mwananyamala Regional Referral Hospital in Dar es Salaam.
It also verified two videos and a photograph showing at least 10 bodies stacked on three stretchers outside Sekou Toure Regional Referral Hospital in Mwanza.
“Since I started working over 15 years ago, I have never seen something like this,” a Dar es Salaam-based healthcare professional told Amnesty International.
“I had never seen so many people shot like this, and so many dead bodies piled up and crows eating their flesh.”
Amnesty International said it documented numerous cases of people being shot in their homes or while carrying out everyday activities.
Amnesty International said it interviewed families and friends of eight people killed in Dar es Salaam, Mwanza, Arusha, Tunduma, Moshi and Mbeya who were unable to locate their loved ones’ bodies, even after searching multiple morgues.
The organisation said they fear security forces removed the bodies to conceal evidence of killings.