518 Killed In 2025 Election Protests In Tanzania, Says Regime Appointed Commission Of Inquiry

The regime in Tanzania has made its debut utterance about the death toll from the bloody protests during and after the country's sham General Elections 2025. That happened during the submission of a report by a regime appointed commission of inquiry on April 23, 2026, reported some East African media the same day.

According to the media reports, the commission of inquiry in outlining some of the findings in its report, observed that 518 people were killed during the countrywide election and post-election protests by youths, and that the death toll could be higher.

518 killed in 2025 election protests in Tanzania, says regime appointed commission of inquiry

The commission of inquiry's report is said to have presented a flawed assignment of accountability for the wanton killings, laying the blame for the killings squarely on the victims themselves, i.e., the young protesters, arguing, among others, that the protests were unlawful.

The report, therefore, did not assign accountability for the massacre to those who carried out the killings, i.e., the security forces. The latter have been reported earlier in various sources locally and internationally as been responsible for triggering the violent protests after they had used excessive force and opened fire on the hitherto peaceful unarmed young protesters.

Also, neither did the report assign accountability for massacre to those at command levels, i.e., government and security services top officials who may have authorized the bloody crackdown by security forces that led to gunning down of numerous unarmed protesters and other people.

However, according to some latest media reports, the regime has addressed the above anomaly of the commission of inquiry report, that is likely to have been made deliberately, saying that, who were responsible for crimes committed during the election protests will be determined by a commission of investigation that will be launched soon.

Notwithstanding the foregoing, one finding in the report said to have been mentioned by the commission of inquiry is probably interesting and useful. It is about the causes of the election protests, and that the commission reportedly stated as being some political, economic, and social issues that include, among others, the following.

1. Demands for political reform

2. Widespread incidents of enforced disappearances

3. Unemployment

Reportedly, in accepting the commission of inquiry's report, the regime there, reiterated its unwavering defence of the brutal actions of security forces on those days of election protests, hence the gunning down of some young protesters and other people. Whether protests are legal or illegal, unarmed protesters should not be killed. Security forces can not go about gunning down unarmed people participating in a protest just because the protest is unauthorised or has no police permit. Protesters deemed to have committed crime, should only be arrested in proper manner and charged. Nothing more.

In reacting to the findings in the report by the commission of inquiry, Tanzania's main opposition party Chadema is said to have dismissed the findings and the report in particular, labelling it as a coverup aimed at trying to rationalize the regime's crimes. Chadema is said to have elaborated its stance on the commission of inquiry's report, saying that the inquiry that generated the report hence the findings, was not independent hence not impartial, because the commission of inquiry was appointed solely by the regime. The main opposition party then continued by observing correctly that how could the inquiry have been impartial when the regime per se is the main suspect in the crimes that were central to the inquiry.

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