Panic Grips Tanzania’s Security Chiefs as ICC Targets President Samia for Massacre

Tanzania, November 26 – Tanzanian security officials were Tuesday thrown into panic as a coalition of international legal and human rights groups petitioned International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s government for crimes against humanity, including mass killings, enforced disappearances, torture, and a coordinated cover-up following the disputed 2025 election. A source in security agency said the President convened an emergency meeting Tuesday evening of key officials, including the army commander and intelligence chiefs, in what insiders described as a tense session aimed at damage control and reviewing security protocols nationwide.

The petition, submitted on November 13 by a Madrid-based lawyer Juan Carlos Gutiérrez on behalf of victims of the October 2025 post-election protests, accuses the president and senior security officials of crimes against humanity. The petition argues the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) to move with speed and open a preliminary investigation, arguing that the Tanzanian government is both “unwilling and unable” to investigate or prosecute its own security forces.

The 82-page document, cites Articles 15 and 28 of the Rome Statute, holding the president, the director of intelligence, Dar es Salaam’s police commander, and a senior army general responsible for systematic killings of civilians. The petition alleges that security forces carried out coordinated executions, torture, and mass arrests, using a nationwide internet shutdown and a midnight curfew as a cover to act with impunity and conceal the atrocities. The document further names the ICT Minister as a key actor, stating that he executed the nationwide internet shutdown that lasted five days – an act the petition describes as “inhumane” and integral to facilitating murder by allowing security forces to operate without scrutiny or real-time documentation.

According to the filing, the violence began on October 29, election day, when tens of thousands of young Tanzanians protested alleged electoral fraud across major cities, including Dar es Salaam, Mwanza, Arusha, Shinyanga, Dodoma, Mbeya, Tunduma, and Tanga. Security forces fired live ammunition into crowds, arrested demonstrators enmasse, and conducted acts of torture and executions. The curfew allowed operations to continue at night without witnesses and facilitated the secret disposal of bodies, instilling widespread fear.

Opposition leaders and human rights groups say they have documented more than 2,000 deaths and hundreds of injuries during the post-election crackdown – numbers that far exceed government statements. President Samia publicly defended the crackdown on November 1, labeling protesters as “criminals attempting to overthrow the government.”

Read more on death toll here: At Least 2,000 Killed in Tanzania, Including Journalists, Lawyers, and Human Rights Monitors

The filing comes just days after a detailed CNN investigation, using geolocation analysis, verified footage, audio forensics, and interviews with survivors, documented security forces firing live rounds at mostly young protesters. The network also verified images of morgues overflowing with bodies, raising fresh doubts about the official death toll. Further, CNN investigation revealed through satellite images and videos revealed newly disturbed burial grounds at Kondo cemetery, north of Dar es Salaam – corroborating witness accounts of mass graves. Human rights groups and local residents have insisted the site had been used to dispose of protesters’ bodies in recent weeks, even as authorities continue to deny the allegations.

The government has maintained a defensive position. Information Minister Mohabe Mjengo, responding to the CNN documentary, said authorities had “taken note” of the investigation and were “undertaking a thorough internal review to verify the information presented by the international media outlet.”

Read more here: Tanzania Massacre: Hospitals Overwhelmed, Calls for UN and ICC Intervention Escalate

Amid mounting international scrutiny, President Samia on November 14 – just one day after the ICC petition – announced an eight-member commission to probe the deadly post-election protests. The government framed the move as a step toward transparency, emphasizing that, rather than await an external investigation; it had proactively taken the lead in examining the unrest.

According to the president, the commission’s mandate includes determining which rights protesters felt had been violated, evaluating the influence of opposition party political statements prior to election in fueling the unrest, probing allegations that some demonstrators were financially induced – including potential involvement of local and international NGOs – and examining why alternative mechanisms for addressing grievances failed to prevent the nationwide demonstrations.

However, opposition leaders, civil society groups, and eyewitnesses swiftly dismissed the commission as a pre-emptive shield against accountability, arguing that its formation appeared intended to pre-empt external investigations rather than uncover the truth.

President Samia’s announcement fueled criticism, as several appointees have been linked to past episodes of alleged state repression. Particularly contentious is the inclusion of former Inspector General of Police Said Mwema, who oversaw the force during a time marked by notorious abuses, including the 2012 killing of journalist Daudi Mwangosi and the violent assault on Dr. Steven Ulimboka. These episodes remain deeply etched in national memory, especially among journalists and activists, one human rights activist told this publication.

The appointment of former Chief Justice Prof. Ibrahim Hamis Juma has also raised alarm. His 2017 to 2025 tenure saw politically charged treason prosecutions and a troubling pattern of unresolved disappearances of government critics, prompting many Tanzanians to exercise caution during periods of political tension. Human rights groups say the ICC filing heightens these concerns, highlighting the conflict between a government-led inquiry headed by former officials implicated in past human rights abuses and growing international allegations of crimes against humanity.

The ICC petition situated the October 2025 crackdown within a broader pattern of state-sponsored persecution, revisiting past killings under former President John Magufuli, including violence against Maasai communities in Ngorongoro and Loliondo. According to the charges, the post-election violence was not spontaneous but a deliberate state policy executed with the knowledge and participation of the highest levels of government.

The core of the ICC filing rests on establishing that the violence was not a series of isolated incidents, but a coordinated “attack directed against any civilian population,” meeting the ICC’s legal definition for crimes against humanity under Article 7 of the Rome Statute.

The document states that the attack was both “widespread,” affecting at least nine regions across the country, and “systematic,” showing a high degree of organization and planning. It alleges the crimes were “conducted pursuant to state policy,” pointing to explicit public authorization from President Hassan herself.

On November 1, 2025, while being sworn in after an election she was declared to have won with 97.66 per cent of the vote, President Hassan stated: “we will take all actions and involve all security agencies” to stop protests. The filing frames this as a direct order from the Commander-in-Chief that green-lit the ensuing violence.

The petition also provides a chilling timeline of the state’s strategy. On the afternoon of October 29, 2025, as protests over alleged electoral fraud began, the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA) implemented a complete nationwide internet shutdown.

This was not merely a communication disruption, the document argues, but a strategic tool to facilitate atrocities. The blackout, which lasted five days and cost the economy an estimated $238 million, “prevented real-time documentation of security force violence” and “created an information vacuum within which security forces could kill with reduced risk of contemporaneous documentation.”

Under this cover of digital darkness, and an illegally imposed curfew, security forces began a coordinated massacre. The filing cites eyewitness accounts of police and military units opening fire with live ammunition directly into crowds of peaceful protesters in major cities.

“Security forces opened fire without warning, aimed at center mass and heads… and continued firing even as protesters fled,” the filing states, citing photographic evidence of fatal gunshot wounds. The document also references reports from Mwanza, where residents saw trucks transporting corpses toward Lake Victoria, with activists alleging that “scores of bodies were weighted down and dumped in the lake.”

Doctors were reportedly threatened at gunpoint by police not to reveal death tolls, and there are “credible reports… that victims with gunshot wounds are being collected by security agents from medical facilities and made to disappear.”

The petition said that domestic prosecution is impossible. Tanzania is described as “unwilling” to investigate, citing the absence of any official probes into the documented crimes, and “unable” due to a compromised judicial system in which evidence is controlled by the perpetrators.

“The evidence is overwhelming. The jurisdiction is clear. The gravity is indisputable. The necessity is urgent,” the document states, warning that “every day of delay is another day of impunity, another day in which crimes continue, another day in which evidence is destroyed.”

“The Rome Statute was created for precisely this situation – where a state commits mass atrocities against its own population and domestic institutions cannot or will not provide accountability,” Gutiérrez stated. “The ICC is the court of last resort. For Tanzania’s victims, it is the only hope.”

If accepted, the petition would make President Samia the first sitting Tanzanian head of state to face ICC judges over allegations of mass killings and systematic persecution. The court has yet to confirm whether it will open a preliminary examination, but the filing highlights the severity and scale of the alleged atrocities.