In the days following Tanzania’s October 29, 2025, presidential election, the country has been gripped by a wave of violence, controversy, and international condemnation. The main opposition party, Chadema, has accused the government’s security forces of a chilling act: secretly disposing of the bodies of hundreds—possibly thousands—of demonstrators killed during a brutal crackdown on post-election protests. As the dust settles in Dar es Salaam and across the nation, families search for missing loved ones, while the world’s gaze sharpens on President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s administration and its response to the unrest.
The spark for this turmoil was the hotly contested election, which saw President Hassan, Tanzania’s first female leader, claim a landslide victory with more than 97% of the vote. But the legitimacy of this win has been called into question by both domestic opposition and international observers. According to the Associated Press, key rivals—most notably Chadema’s Tundu Lissu and ACT-Wazalendo’s Luhaga Mpina—were barred from running. Lissu himself was detained on treason charges, accused by the government of planning to disrupt the vote. His deputy, John Heche, was also arrested just days before Tanzanians went to the polls.
As ballots were counted, protests erupted in major cities, with demonstrators—many of them young—taking to the streets to denounce what they saw as a sham election. Authorities responded swiftly and forcefully: imposing a nationwide curfew, instituting a six-day internet blackout, and deploying security forces armed with live ammunition and tear gas. Human Rights Watch, as reported by CNN and the Associated Press, condemned the crackdown, urging Tanzanian authorities to “end the use of excessive and lethal force against protests, and take steps to ensure accountability.” The organization cited multiple reports of point-blank shootings by security forces.
Amid the chaos, Chadema began to gather what evidence it could. Brenda Rupia, the party’s director of communications, told CNN, “As days keep going, we’re establishing and finding out that more people have died in different regions. So far, we have 2,000 (dead) people documented, including more than 100 from Chadema.” She went on to allege that police have actively prevented families from retrieving the bodies of the dead and have disposed of over 400 bodies in secret. “The police have thrown away over 400 bodies. We don’t even know where they’ve taken them,” Rupia said, speaking from an undisclosed location out of fear for her safety. “A lot has happened in the past three or four days ever since the election, and I know that the worst is yet to happen.”
These harrowing claims have been echoed by other sources. The Tanganyika Law Society, a prominent legal group, told the Associated Press it had received accounts indicating more than 1,000 deaths and was compiling a report for international legal bodies. “The killings were pre-planned to target regions that are known to be politically active, those that are critics of the ruling party. Following people to their homes and killing them amounts to a massacre,” said Boniface Mwabukusi, the society’s president. Independent human rights lawyer Tito Magoti reported receiving messages about army trucks transporting bodies from a hospital mortuary near Arusha, suggesting a systematic effort by authorities to conceal the scale of the violence.
While the government has largely remained silent in the face of these allegations, it has dismissed the opposition’s death toll as “hugely exaggerated.” A government spokesperson did not respond to repeated requests for comment from CNN and the Associated Press. President Hassan, inaugurated on November 3 for her second term, acknowledged in her speech that there had been loss of life during the protests but declined to provide a specific number. Instead, she called on security agencies to restore normalcy, as life in cities like Dar es Salaam and Dodoma slowly began to return to a semblance of routine—gas stations and grocery shops reopening, public transport resuming, and a work-from-home order for public workers lifted.
The government’s approach to information control has added another layer of tension. As internet connectivity was gradually restored after the six-day blackout, authorities warned citizens against sharing photos and videos that could “cause panic,” threatening treason charges for those who disseminated images that “demean human life.” Several social media pages that had begun uploading graphic footage of the violence were swiftly taken down, and police barred the public from photographing or filming scenes related to the protests or their aftermath.
International response has been swift and pointed. The African Union Commission expressed being “extremely concerned” about the violence, noting that the internet shutdown made it difficult to confirm the actual death toll. Observers from the Southern African Development Community stated the election “fell short” of democratic standards. The foreign ministries of Canada, Norway, and the United Kingdom issued a joint statement citing “credible reports of a large number of fatalities and significant injuries,” and the Catholic Church in Tanzania reported deaths in the “hundreds,” though it could not independently verify the total.
President Hassan, for her part, has attributed the unrest to foreign interference, according to reporting by Human Rights Watch and other outlets. Yet, opposition figures are adamant that the violence was state-orchestrated. Deogratius Munishi, a senior Chadema official, told the Associated Press, “We want to see those who shot Tanzanians being held accountable.” The party has refused to enter into any political pact with the government until there are meaningful electoral and judicial reforms.
As the world watches, the human cost continues to mount. Families scour hospitals for news of missing relatives, with many reporting that police have blocked their attempts to claim the bodies of loved ones. Rupia described the situation starkly: “Most bodies are still at the hospitals and the police are stopping people from taking dead bodies away.” The sense of collective trauma is palpable, with many Tanzanians—accustomed to decades of relative political stability—struggling to come to terms with the violence and secrecy that have gripped their nation.
The events of the past week have left Tanzania at a crossroads. The credibility of its democratic institutions has been called into question, and the wounds inflicted by the violence will not soon heal. For now, the families of the dead and missing wait for answers, and the world waits to see whether the government will provide them—or if these tragedies will be quietly swept from view.