Tanzania: Release Commission of Inquiry report into election-related killings to kickstart accountability process
Responding to news that the Commission of Inquiry’s report into the killings perpetrated during and after the 29 October 2025 general elections has been handed to Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for East and Southern Africa, Flavia Mwangovya, said:
“Victims’ families and members of the public must have an opportunity to interrogate the investigation report to know the scope of the investigations, procedures followed, its findings, and the factual and legal basis of the findings. To withhold the Commission of Inquiry report from the public is a blow to transparency, which is key in the process of achieving accountability, and heaps a further injustice on the families of those unlawfully killed.
“The report’s findings that at least 518 people died of unnatural causes, including from gunshot injuries, should not be taken lightly. These are lives lost at the hands of security forces. The Tanzanian authorities must immediately launch independent, transparent and effective investigations into these deaths and bring those responsible to account.
To withhold the Commission of Inquiry report from the public is a blow to transparency, which is key in the process of achieving accountability, and heaps a further injustice on the families of those unlawfully killed.
Flavia Mwangovya, Deputy Regional Director, Amnesty ESARO
“Authorities must reveal under what circumstances these people were killed or injured and who were responsible for ordering, enabling, or committing these violations. They must also immediately make the whole report public. Any limitations on transparency must be strictly necessary for a legitimate purpose, such as protecting the privacy and safety of affected individuals through appropriate redactions. In no circumstances may the authorities restrict transparency in a way that would result in impunity for those responsible.
Authorities must reveal under what circumstances these people were killed or injured and who were responsible for ordering, enabling, or committing these violations. They must also immediately make the whole report public.
Flavia Mwangovya
“The president’s open refusal to make the Commission of Inquiry report public is a disappointing continuation of a pattern in which officially commissioned reports are never made public, perpetuating a state of impunity in Tanzania.”
Background
Following the 29 October 2025 general elections, Tanzanian security forces used unnecessary or disproportionate force, including lethal force, to suppress election protests. Security forces fired live ammunition and teargas directly at protesters and other individuals who posed no imminent threat of death or serious injury. 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. On 14 November 2025, President Samia Suluhu announced the formation of a Commission of Inquiry to investigate the killings that occurred during and after the elections.
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