A government-appointed commission of inquiry on Thursday said at least 518 people were killed in the deadly violence that erupted after Tanzaniaโs October 29, 2025, election.
The government acknowledged last year that people died in the protest, but it did not provide the death toll. However, UN human rights experts had said that at least 700 people were estimated to have been killed in the violence.
The commissionโs chair, Mohamed Chande Othman, while handing over the report to Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan, said the death toll could be underestimated due to challenges in identifying victims.
According to him, of the 518, 490 were males, 21 were children, and 16 were security officers.
Without specifically naming any individual, he said the commissionโs โindisputable evidenceโ showed the violence that trailed the polls was sponsored by โtrained people.โ
โOrganisers used various techniques, including using people without a deep understanding and desperate youth, while โencouraging simultaneous acts of violence across different locations,โ said Mr Othman.
Mr Othman recommended that a criminal investigation commission be set up to probe specific incidents, without passing judgment on law enforcement agencies.
Upon receiving the commissionโs report, Ms Hassan said Tanzania had learnt from the violence that โshook our nation.โ
โWe have learnt,โ said the president. โThe commission has told us that all the violence was planned, coordinated, financed, and executed by people who were trained and given equipment for committing crimes.โ
Ms Hassan maintained that the demonstratorsโ aim was to โcreate a leadership vacuumโ and make Tanzania โungovernable.โ
She accepted Mr Othmanโs recommendation on the establishment of an investigation body to identify those responsible for the looting of properties and destruction of infrastructure.
โThe investigation will also examine the deaths of children, address claims of missing bodies, and probe allegations of abductions, including cases beyond the immediate areas of the unrest,โ she said.
However, the main opposition party, Chadema, dismissed the report as โa cover-upโ and โan attempt to whitewash the regimeโs crimes,โ according to the AFP news agency.
Protests began on the election day, after opposition candidates Tundu Lissu of the CHADEMA party and Luhaga Mpina of the Alliance for Change and Transparency (ACT-Wazalendo) were barred from participating in the presidential and parliamentary elections. The protest lasted about two weeks.
Violence broke out after security operatives clashed with protesters. The police used firearms and tear gas against demonstrators in the cities of Dar es Salaam, Shinyanga, and Morogoro.
Despite the protests, Ms Hassan insisted that the East African countryโs election was conducted with utmost โtransparency and adherence to democratic principles.โ
Meanwhile, the president, on December 2, 2025, justified the policeโs killing of protesters. She accused demonstrators of attempting to overthrow her.
โSo when weโre told that we used too much force in that event, what was the smallest force? Were we supposed to wait until the protestersโwho had planned to overthrow the governmentโhad succeeded?โ she stated.
Tanzaniaโs Independent National Electoral Commission on November 1 declared Ms Hassan the winner of the controversial election, having garnered 98 per cent of the votes.



































Discussion about this post