How Tanzania police crushed election protests with lethal force

Warning: This story contains graphic descriptions of violence and gunshot wounds.

The crowd runs in panic down a dusty street. Gunshots are heard. A woman in a purple jacket, carrying a stick, falls to the ground.

Another woman can be heard begging, “Mom, mom, get up,” as she tries to lift herself up. Blood spreads around his stomach as another spot appears on his back.

This verified footage, shot in Arusha, Tanzania, is just one of several sensational scenes that have emerged showing violent police action as they tried to quell widespread protests during the country’s presidential and parliamentary elections last month.

The protests, which started in Dar es Salaam on October 29, spread throughout the country in the following days. The demonstrations were largely organized by young people who remain angry at what they see as a single-party political system since Tanzania gained independence in the 1960s.

Some opposition leaders were arrested and others were banned from standing during the elections, while some opposition activists were detained. Incumbent President Samia Suluhu Hassan secured victory after the election commission announced that she received 98% of the votes.

Since then, the UN human rights office (OHCHR) has said there have been reports that hundreds of people have been killed during the protests, with many more injured or detained. A diplomatic source in Tanzania told the BBC there was credible evidence that at least 500 people had died.

Footage of the protests was suppressed for almost a week after the government imposed a near-total internet blackout and threatened to jail anyone who shared any video of the protests, saying it could cause unrest.

But after the block was lifted on November 4, dozens of videos began to emerge online showing violent scenes: uniformed police officers appear to be shooting into crowds, bodies lie in the streets, and others pile up in front of the hospital.

BBC Verify analyzed, geolocated and verified the footage to understand what happened; thus creating a clearer picture of how the police responded to the demonstrations.

In the footage, our team confirmed that the protests were dominated by groups of young men, drawing strong parallels with the global Gen Z youth movement, which has become disillusioned with the economic decline and lackluster leadership in countries across Africa.

The first demonstrations we identified took place in the early hours of election day in Dar es Salaam, the country’s largest city and economic hub. They have spread to other urban areas across the country, including the cities of Mwanza and Arusha.

The internet outage makes it difficult to determine a clear sequence of events, but what is clear from videos and images posted online is that protesters were facing heavily armed police units who blocked their advance and fired tear gas to disperse the crowd. In many of the videos, gunshots can be clearly heard as people scatter in the ensuing chaos.

A major flashpoint was on the Morogoro Road, the main highway through Dar es Salaam. Two separate, highly graphic videos show two bodies lying on a side road next to St Andrew’s Anglican Church. One of them lies unresponsive, with serious wounds visible on his head, surrounded by a pool of blood.

We spotted more bodies lying nearby on the same road: one near the bus stop, two on the ground surrounded by blood. A body is then seen wrapped in a white shroud.

Other casualties can be seen on this section of the highway and in the surrounding side streets.

Images taken from another location close to the Open University of Tanzania show a motionless body on the ground with an open wound on its head. In a later video taken from the same scene, we see the body wrapped in a cloth and being led towards a group of police officers standing next to the university building.

The group chants “Murderers, murderers” at the police officers, one with a rifle and the other with a gun. The body is then placed in the back of a truck.

BBC Verify has verified at least a dozen other videos from Dar es Salaam showing people with various injuries, some of whom are about to be taken elsewhere.

We also documented the death toll from protests more than 700 miles (1,125 km) away in Mwanza, Tanzania’s second-largest city, on election day.

On the grounds of the city’s Sekou Toure Hospital, various videos show a pile of 10 bodies, all of young men. Some have visible open wounds. Other images taken from inside the hospital show corpses resembling a hospital morgue.

We have verified several videos of police opening fire on groups of protesters.

Three videos posted online show police vehicles chasing dozens of people trying to escape along the Nelson Mandela Trail in Dar es Salaam. As the police advance, several gunshots can be heard.

Footage from Arusha shows a police car passing a crowd of slogan-shouting young people. Gunshots are heard and people are seen scattering and running for safety. In another video, a wounded man is seen telling those around him that he was shot.

In the Kijitonyama district in northern Dar es Salaam, two men in uniform were filmed aiming and shooting along a main road in the direction of the protests. We confirmed the location next to a local school. The green uniforms and flat-topped caps worn by the two men are very similar to those worn by Tanzanian police.

Less than 100 meters away, a man can be seen lying on the street with blood from his head. Men wearing similar green uniforms can be seen in the distance. Someone shouts: “He was shot in the head. They killed him.” [him].” As the video continues, more gunshots can be heard.

There are also numerous videos seen by BBC Verify of men in identical green uniforms firing guns, sometimes into the air and sometimes into open streets.

Investigators from audio forensics experts called Earshot said what was heard in those videos confirmed the use of live bullets against protesters.

After analyzing sounds from the scene, they said: “Rubber bullets do not generally travel at supersonic speeds.

“Therefore, the presence of these shock waves indicates that live rounds were used.”

Not all of the people we see carrying guns are wearing uniforms. Footage taken on Dar es Salaam’s Sam Nujoma Road shows three men in civilian clothes firing a gun next to a sedan. It is not clear who they are.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk called for an investigation into the murders and other violations committed during the Tanzanian elections and for the unconditional release of those arrested before the vote and those detained since then.

The Tanzanian government and police have been contacted for comment.