Tanzania: Security forces used unlawful lethal force in election protest crackdown and ‘took away’ dead bodies

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.

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.