Human Rights Watch said on Monday that Zambian police and military forcibly disappeared, arbitrarily detained, beat and threatened opposition members and supporters, lawyers, journalists and government critics in the days before and after the general elections of August 13, 2026, in which President Hakainde Hichilema was re-elected. Observers had criticised that election over irregularities including a suspension of vote counting and limits on fundamental freedoms, the group said.
The documented record is specific. Human Rights Watch recorded 14 cases from August that appear to constitute enforced disappearances, in which authorities refused to disclose detainees’ whereabouts; 61 cases in which detainees, their lawyers or relatives alleged beatings or other violence during arrest or detention; 71 cases of arrests on charges the group considers potentially politically motivated; and 18 people charged with treason, two of them also facing sedition charges. Forty-three opposition members serving as election monitors were detained on August 14, and their lawyer said their whereabouts were unknown for eight days while police denied holding them. From August 24 to 28, the authorities suspended judicial services and cordoned off court premises, preventing legal challenges to the presidential result.
The report also addresses a killing. Opposition members allege that former minister Mutotwe Kafwaya was killed by security forces during an August 14 raid on the Lusaka home of Tonse Alliance leader Brian Mundubile. Human Rights Watch said official statements about who was responsible for the raid and the circumstances of the killing conflict with each other, and called for an independent investigation. On September 11 the government cancelled the passports of six critics, including the academic Sishuwa Sishuwa, citing security reasons.
Ashwanee Budoo-Scholtz, the group’s deputy Africa director, called on the authorities to halt the crackdown, give detainees access to lawyers and medical care, release everyone arbitrarily detained and ensure accountability for abuses by security forces. No Zambian government response to the report was in the reporting read. Zambia is due to serve on the UN Human Rights Council for the 2027 to 2029 term, which makes the government’s answer, and whether the treason cases and the Kafwaya investigation proceed in open court, the tests of the next weeks.