AI-Summary – News For Tomorrow
The U.S. is reviewing its relationship with Tanzania after its disputed October 2025 presidential election, where President Samia Suluhu Hassan secured victory amidst accusations of repression and violence against civilians. The government crackdown on protesters, potentially resulting in hundreds of deaths according to the opposition, UN, and rights groups, has drawn strong criticism. The EU already suspended aid, while Hassan has defended the security forces’ actions, dismissing Western interference and claiming the violence was an attempted coup. Critics say Hassan, despite initial reform promises, has intensified the crackdown on dissent. A Kenyan teacher killed during the election remains unburied, highlighting the human cost.
News summary provided by Gemini AI.
A protester holds a placard during a picket in Cape Town, South Africa, protesting against the Tanzanian government during their presidential election in Oct. 2025
RODGER BOSCH/AFP via Getty Images
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RODGER BOSCH/AFP via Getty Images
NAIROBI, KENYA —The U.S. is “comprehensively reviewing” its ties with Tanzania after the State Department condemned “repression” and “disturbing violence against civilians” during protests that followed the country’s disputed October presidential election, which returned President Samia Suluhu Hassan to power.
Officials said the government’s actions raise serious concerns about the bilateral relationship and the East African countries’ reliability as a partner.
According to the country’s main opposition party, the United Nations and several rights groups, hundreds of people may have been killed as a result of the government crackdown on protestors, though the government has not released an official death toll and independent verification remains limited.
This is Washington’s strongest rebuke against Tanzania which last month saw the European Union suspend tens of millions of dollars in aid, citing the crackdown and lack of transparency.
It comes just days after Tanzania’s President Samia Suluhu Hassan angrily hit out Western nations, religious leaders and opposition figures, accusing them of interfering in the country’s internal affairs.
“Do they still think they’re still our masters, our colonizers? Why, because of the little money they give us?” she told a gathering of elders from the commercial capital Dar es Salaam.
Hassan described the deadly violence as an attempted coup and defended security forces accused of killing hundreds of protesters.
Hassan claimed she won 98% of the vote in the Oct. 29 election, even though the main opposition parties were blocked from participating and several of their leaders were arrested on treason charges.
A portrait of Tanzania President Samia Suluhu Hassan during the October election campaign 2025.
MARCO LONGARI/AFP via Getty Images
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MARCO LONGARI/AFP via Getty Images
Hassan became president in 2021 following the sudden death of President John Magufuli and initially positioned herself as a reformer. But critics say she has continued and intensified the previous regime’s crackdown on dissent.
Among those killed was John Oduor, a Kenyan teacher shot in Dar es Salaam on polling day. More than a month later, his body remains in a Tanzanian morgue, and his family has still been unable to repatriate him for a traditional burial.
“I appeal to the President of this great nation, my country, Kenya — please come out and assist us,” Oduor’s elder sister Celestine told NPR. “We need closure as a family. We are tortured, emotionally and psychologically.”
Amnesty International and other right groups says Tanzania’s post election crisis marks a deepening crisis in the region, with opposition and press freedom crackdowns in East Africa
For the Oduor family and hundreds of others searching for loved ones, the political rhetoric offers little comfort. “Each day without answers,” Celestine told NPR, “is harder than the last.”
