Three months after the 2025 general election and the subsequent protest crackdown, hundreds of Tanzanian families remain in a state of “symbolic mourning,” unable to find the remains of their loved ones.
Reports from human rights organizations and international observers describe a systematic effort by security forces to conceal the scale of the casualties
The October 29, 2025, election—in which President Samia Suluhu Hassan was declared the winner with 98% of the vote—triggered nationwide unrest. The crackdown that followed resulted in a death toll that is still heavily disputed.
The government has largely denied reports of mass deaths or excessive force. The opposition and various African human rights organizations estimate between 2,000 and 10,000 people were killed. UN experts have expressed alarm over ” hundreds” of alleged extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances.
The primary reason families are still searching for bodies is the alleged systematic removal of remains by security forces. Reports from Amnesty International and the UN indicate the witnesses and families have reported seeing the bodies of their relatives in morgues (such as Amana Hospital), only for bodies to vanish when they returned to collect them for burial.
There are credible allegations of security forces using mass graves and secret disposal sites to hide evidence of the “massacre.”Some families who were able to recover bodies reported being forced to sign false statements regarding the cause of death—attributing them to accidents or illness rather than gunshot wounds—as a condition for the body’s release.
In a heartbreaking development reported this month (January 2026), many families have given up on physical recovery. Families are increasingly holding symbolic burials, where they bury a loved one’s clothes or personal items in a marked grave to provide a sense of closure.
In response to the outcry, a Presidential Commission was established to investigate the post-election violence. In recent January sessions, families have testified before this commission, recounting how they were blocked by police from retrieving bodies and how hospital officials claimed the “government had issued further instructions” regarding the remains.
By Anthony Solly
