GENEVA 

The UN human rights office on Friday called on Tanzanian authorities to ensure fundamental freedoms are respected ahead of planned demonstrations on the country's Independence Day, urging security forces to allow peaceful assemblies amid escalating tensions following last month's elections.

Ahead of planned Dec. 9 protests, "we remind the authorities of their obligation to ensure the rights to freedoms of expression, peaceful assembly, and association," spokesperson Seif Magango told reporters in Geneva.

"We urge the government to instruct security forces to plan and implement their operations in a manner that allows Tanzanians to fully exercise these fundamental rights," he added.

Magango said hundreds were reportedly killed and over 2,000 detained after protests erupted following the Oct. 29 general elections, adding that the government had "intensified a crackdown against opponents since the vote."

He noted that a nationwide police ban on all Independence Day protests issued on Wednesday constituted "an overbroad, disproportionate step," calling for the lifting of the ban.

"We remind security forces they must refrain from using force to disperse non-violent assemblies and make every effort to de-escalate tensions," he said. "We recall again the requirements of international law in this area -- if unavoidable, any use of force, including less lethal weapons, must be restricted to the minimum extent necessary. Firearms should not be used to disperse any assembly and can only be used as a measure of last resort to counter an imminent threat of death or serious injury."

Magango warned that recent detentions of academics, civil society actors and political figures, some allegedly carried out by unidentified armed personnel, alongside increased security deployments, fuel restrictions and expanded digital surveillance "risk inflaming public tension."

He stressed that authorities have yet to disclose how many people were killed in the post-election unrest or clarify reports of enforced disappearances.

"The continued absence of transparent information risks further eroding public trust and heightening tensions at a critical moment," he said, calling for the "immediate and unconditional release" of all those arbitrarily detained.

Magango noted the government has launched an investigation into the violence. He said UN human rights chief Volker Turk reminded authorities that such a probe must meet international standards of independence, impartiality, thoroughness, promptness and transparency, and ensure protection from reprisals for all who engage with it.