NAIROBI, Kenya, Apr 24 — Amnesty International has called on Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan to make public a Commission of Inquiry report into killings linked to the October 2025 general elections, saying transparency is critical to delivering justice for victims and their families.
The appeal follows confirmation that the report, detailing violence during and after the 2025 Tanzanian general elections, has been handed to the president.
Responding to the development, Amnesty’s Deputy Regional Director for East and Southern Africa, Flavia Mwangovya, said the findings must be subjected to public scrutiny to kickstart an accountability process.
“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,” Mwangovya said.
“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 indicates that at least 518 people died under what it described as “unnatural causes,” including gunshot injuries, in the aftermath of the polls.
“These are lives lost at the hands of security forces,” Mwangovya said, urging authorities to immediately launch independent, transparent and effective investigations and ensure those responsible are held to account.
She emphasized that authorities must disclose the circumstances under which the victims were killed or injured, and identify those who ordered, enabled or carried out the alleged violations.
“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,” she said.
While acknowledging that certain redactions may be necessary to protect victims and witnesses, Amnesty warned that the restrictions on transparency must not be used to shield perpetrators from accountability.
The rights group further criticised what it described as a pattern of secrecy around official inquiries in Tanzania.
“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,” Mwangovya said.
Following the October 29 elections, Amnesty says Tanzanian security forces used unnecessary and disproportionate force to suppress protests, including firing live ammunition and teargas at demonstrators who posed no imminent threat.
The organization also cited reports of beatings, denial of medical care to the wounded, arrests of injured individuals, and the removal of bodies from mortuaries, amid a nationwide internet shutdown.
On November 14, 2025, President Suluhu announced the formation of a Commission of Inquiry to investigate the killings that occurred during and after the elections.