Dar es Salaam – The Legal and Human Rights Centre (LHRC) launched its 208-page Tanzania Human Rights Report 2025 on April 20, 2026, characterising the post-election period as a “major setback” for civil liberties in the East African nation.
The report, compiled by dedicated fieldwork teams across the mainland and Zanzibar, provides granular documentation of abuses that goes beyond the broad casualty estimates previously reported by local and international bodies.
According to the LHRC’s extensive fieldwork, the human rights situation significantly deteriorated throughout 2025, with the vast majority of violations concentrated between October and December.
The centre’s researchers recorded 709 specific incidents of harassment, torture, and arbitrary arrest during this period, alongside 80 documented cases of abduction and disappearance—the highest concentration in at least a decade.
Rather than relying solely on aggregate numbers, the LHRC report details specific, harrowing incidents uncovered by its researchers. In one particularly disturbing case in Arusha, researchers documented the fatal shooting of a pregnant woman.
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“A pregnant woman could not run faster because she was expecting,” the report quotes an eyewitness as saying, noting that security forces were accused of firing live ammunition directly at individuals who posed no imminent threat.
In Dar es Salaam’s Kinyerezi area, the report details an incident where eight neighbours were allegedly lined up and shot. Meanwhile, in Mwanza’s Mjimwema area, researchers found that at least 13 people were killed when police allegedly opened fire on civilians who were simply watching football at a café.
The LHRC’s fieldwork also focused heavily on the alarming rise in enforced disappearances, which targeted opposition members, activists, religious leaders, journalists, and ordinary citizens.
A prominent case highlighted in the report is that of former ambassador Humphrey Polepole, whose disappearance in October left bloodstains and damaged property at his Dar es Salaam residence.
The report corroborates international media investigations regarding the concealment of evidence. Researchers documented accounts from multiple families who were unable to recover the bodies of their loved ones, with some relatives resorting to burying empty coffins or clothing after searching mortuaries unsuccessfully.
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The document cites UN Human Rights Office findings of “disturbing reports” that security forces removed bodies from streets and hospitals to undisclosed locations, potentially including mass graves at Kondo Cemetery in Dar es Salaam and Tengeru agricultural college in Arusha.
The report highlights the severe suppression of media freedom during the unrest, noting that at least three journalists were killed and others faced arrest.
The arrest and harassment of journalists is a common tactic used by authorities in the region to control the narrative during periods of political instability, often resulting in a chilling effect on independent reporting and a lack of accountability for state actions.
The LHRC also documented a nationwide internet shutdown that lasted more than five days, alongside the suspension of the online platform JamiiForums and the removal of over 80,000 websites and social media accounts.
Interestingly, the LHRC’s Zanzibar fieldwork team reported a different pattern of violations on the islands.
While large-scale political violence was not reported to the same extent as on the mainland, researchers recorded 1,228 cases of gender-based violence in 2025, with children accounting for over 85 per cent of victims and only a 7.7 per cent conviction rate.
The LHRC concludes its report by calling for independent, transparent investigations into all allegations of unlawful killings and enforced disappearances, as well as the establishment of an independent civilian police oversight body.
