Tanzania Post-Election Violence Leaves Over 500 Dead

(MENAFN) More than 500 people — including 21 children — lost their lives in the violent unrest that swept Tanzania following its disputed general election last October, an official government commission revealed Thursday, in the most definitive accounting yet of one of the country's deadliest political crises in recent memory.

The commission, established to investigate the turmoil that erupted in the aftermath of the October 29 vote, confirmed that at least 518 individuals died from "unnatural causes," among them 197 who were shot dead. More than 2,000 others sustained injuries, including 833 who suffered gunshot wounds. Investigators cautioned that the final toll may climb further, citing undocumented burials and incomplete records.

The commission's chairman, retired Chief Justice Mohamed Chande Othman, laid out the grim toll in stark terms.

"Of the 518 deaths, 21 were children. In this group, 15 were children aged between 15 and 17 years, four were aged between seven and ten years, and two were under five years of age," Othman said on Thursday.

The report further disclosed that 245 people remain unaccounted for, and that 39 families reported viewing the bodies of relatives in morgues only to find them subsequently gone. While the commission stopped short of assigning direct responsibility for the deaths, it called for deeper investigation into the deployment of firearms during the unrest.

The violence was ignited by the disqualification of President Samia Suluhu Hassan's two principal challengers — among them Tundu Lissu, leader of the opposition Chadema party, who has remained in detention for months on treason charges. Hassan, one of only two female heads of state on the continent, secured 97% of the vote, clinching her first full five-year elected term. She had originally assumed the presidency in March 2021 following the death of former President John Magufuli.

Authorities imposed a sweeping internet blackout during the unrest. In November, the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) reported that hundreds had been killed and an unknown number injured or detained, condemning what it described as the alleged use of "unnecessary or disproportionate force," including lethal weapons, against protesters by Tanzanian police.

Separately, a 208-page report published Monday by the Tanzania Human Rights Defenders Coalition documented allegations of mass graves, with accounts describing bodies being removed from morgues and buried in undisclosed locations. The government commission, however, flatly rejected those allegations.

The panel also pushed back against characterizations of the protests as peaceful, concluding instead that the demonstrations constituted unlawful and coordinated acts of violence.

"The information and evidence confirm that there were people roaming around in various places… inciting and recruiting various people to participate in violence during and after the general election," it stated.

The commission indicated its findings would serve as the foundation for constitutional reform and the establishment of a dedicated accountability body to pursue those responsible for the bloodshed.

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