Africa 2023

Renewed violence in Sudan illustrated the immense suffering of civilians caught up in armed conflicts across the region, and the utter disregard by parties to conflicts for international humanitarian law. Reports of mass civilian casualties were frequent and shocking, particularly given the scale of targeted and indiscriminate attacks. Sexual violence remained a feature of armed conflict.

Criticizing governments remained dangerous in many African countries. Brutal crackdowns against those who protested government excesses, failures, or allegations of corruption, were pervasive and particularly targeted journalists, human rights defenders, activists and opposition leaders and members. The killings of prominent human rights defender Thulani Maseko in Eswatini and journalist Martinez Zogo in Cameroon, and the death in suspicious circumstances of Rwandese investigative journalist John Williams Ntwali, in one week in January, was a dark moment for the human rights movement.

Combined factors, including inflation, corruption, climate change and conflict, created unbearable living conditions. Millions of people lacked access to basic economic and social rights. Many countries were disproportionately affected by high food price inflation, and food insecurity reached staggering levels.

Incessant armed conflicts and extreme weather events displaced millions of people from their homes, and yet authorities in several countries flouted their obligations to provide protection to refugees and asylum seekers.

Gender-based discrimination and violence against women and girls remained entrenched, while homophobic attacks and clampdowns on LGBTI peoples’ rights escalated across the region.

African governments remained largely indifferent to calls for them to tackle impunity, thereby allowing it to flourish, and fuelling the cycle of violations and abuses, and the disregard for the rule of law. Many governments undermined justice and accountability initiatives or openly frustrated international scrutiny of their human rights records.

Unlawful attacks and killings

Armed conflicts continued to have a devastating effect on civilians in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, the Central African Republic (CAR), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Mali, Nigeria, Somalia, Sudan and elsewhere. When they were not deliberately targeted, including in ethnically motivated attacks, civilians bore the brunt of indiscriminate attacks, which sometimes involved airstrikes, rockets, mortars and other explosive weapons with wide-area effects. Some of these attacks constituted war crimes.

In Sudan, more than 12,000 people were killed when fighting erupted between the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Targeted attacks in many parts of the country, including the capital, Khartoum, but particularly in West Darfur, killed and injured civilians, as did explosive weapons launched by the SAF and RSF from densely populated neighbourhoods.

In Burkina Faso, members of the Ansaroul Islam armed group killed at least 60 civilians in the town of Partiaga in February; six months later they killed 22 people in Nohao. Government forces targeted civilians. In one case, soldiers, accompanied by Volunteers for the Defence of the Homeland, killed at least 147 civilians in the village of Karma. In the DRC, armed groups killed at least 4,000 people and wounded thousands. In Nord-Kivu province, fighters of the Allied Democratic Forces armed group killed some 23 people with machetes. In Ituri province, at least 46 people, half of them children, were shot and hacked to death overnight by fighters of the Cooperative for the Development of the Congo armed group. In Mali, attacks by Islamic State in the Sahel on the villages of Gaina and Boyna, Gao region, left 17 people dead. Two months later, an attack by members of the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims on the villages of Bodio and Yarou in the Bandiagara region, resulted in 37 civilian deaths.

An airstrike by the Nigerian air force killed 21 civilians in Niger state, while a new conflict between Somaliland security forces and armed fighters resulted in 36 civilian deaths, in Somalia, mainly due to the indiscriminate shelling of Las Anod town by Somaliland security forces.

Parties to armed conflicts must protect civilians by ending targeted and indiscriminate attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure.

Conflict-related sexual and gender-based violence

Widespread conflict-related sexual and gender-based violence, including rape, gang rape, abduction and sexual slavery continued, and many survivors had no access to necessary medical and psycho-social support. Soldiers of the Eritrean Defence Forces held at least 15 women captive for nearly three months at a military camp in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, raping them repeatedly. In Burkina Faso, alleged members of Ansaroul Islam abducted 66 women, girls and newborn babies near the village of Liki in the Sahel region. They were freed four days later at a checkpoint in Tougouri. Boko Harem fighters abducted over 40 women in Mafa local government area in Borno state, Nigeria.

In CAR, the UN announced that it had collected evidence of rape, incriminating 11 Tanzanian peacekeepers. In the DRC, over 38,000 sexual violence cases were reported in Nord-Kivu province alone during the first quarter of 2023. In Mali, the UN recorded 51 incidents of conflict-related sexual violence, during the same period, against women and girls. In Sudan, scores of women and girls were subjected to sexual violence, including rape, by members of warring sides, mainly RSF and allied militias. In one case, RSF members abducted 24 women and girls, holding them in a hotel in Nyala for days in conditions amounting to sexual slavery.

Parties to armed conflicts should issue clear orders to their members or forces, prohibiting acts of sexual and gender-based violence; and governments should ensure that survivors of such violence have full access to medical and pyscho-social healthcare.

Repression of dissent

Freedom of peaceful assembly

Across the region, protesters poured onto the streets to voice their concerns about a myriad of issues, including the high cost of living, poor governance and human rights violations. In many cases, security forces dispersed protests using excessive force; scores of protesters and bystanders were killed and injured, including in Angola, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mali, Mozambique, Senegal and Somalia. Police in Kenya killed at least 57 people during protests between March and July. In Senegal, at least 29 people were killed in June when police and armed men in civilian clothing fired live ammunition to disperse violent protests in the capital, Dakar, and Ziguinchor.

In other cases, protests were banned in advance, including in Chad, Guinea, Senegal and Sierra Leone. Bans were primarily targeted at rallies and demonstrations called for by civil society or opposition parties or leaders. In Chad, two demonstrations organized by opposition parties were among those banned by the Ministry of Public Security, ostensibly because the parties did not exist legally and had not met the conditions for authorization of a demonstration. In Guinea, a blanket ban, imposed on all political gatherings since May 2022, remained in place although several rallies supporting the head of state were allowed to proceed.

Freedom of expression

Threats to the right to freedom of expression continued. Speaking out against government policies, actions or inaction, or publicly sharing information deemed damaging to the government carried the risk of arrest, arbitrary detention, or death. Thulani Maseko, a human rights defender in Eswatini, was assassinated in his home. Journalist Martinez Zogo’s mutilated body was found five days after he was abducted in the Yaoundé suburbs in Cameroon. He had been reporting on the alleged corruption of people close to the government. John Williams Ntwali, an investigative journalist who reported on human rights-related issues, died in suspicious circumstances in Rwanda, one day after he told another journalist that he feared for his safety.

In South Sudan, seven journalists were arbitrarily detained at the National Security Service detention facility in the capital, Juba, in relation to a video circulated on social media, which allegedly showed the president urinating on himself. They were held for various periods of up to 10 weeks and released without charge; one of them appeared to have been tortured and otherwise ill-treated.

In Somalia, a court sentenced Abdalle Ahmed Mumin, a journalist and secretary general of the Somali Journalists Syndicate, to two months’ imprisonment for “disobeying government orders”. Having already spent over two months in detention on remand, he was released but re-arrested just over one week later and detained for another month. In Tanzania, at least 12 people were arrested between June and December for criticizing the Tanzania/UAE port agreement, and released unconditionally after a few days.

Judicial harassment of critics was common. In Burundi, journalist Floriane Irangabiye was sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment for “undermining the integrity of the national territory”. Her conviction, based on comments made on a radio show, was upheld on appeal. In Benin, Virgile Ahouansè, news director of an online radio station, was given a 12-month suspended prison sentence for “disseminating false information”. In 2022, he had broadcast an investigation containing witness statements accusing the police of extrajudicial executions. In Niger, Samira Ibrahim was convicted for “producing… data…to disturb public order”, after she claimed on Facebook that Algeria did not recognize Niger’s military regime.

Several journalists, human rights defenders and activists, including in CAR, Chad, Mali, Tanzania and Togo, were forced into exile. In Togo, Ferdinand Ayité and Isidore Kowonou of L’Alternative newspaper were sentenced to three years in prison and a hefty fine after publishing an article accusing two government members of corruption. They fled the country to avoid serving their sentences. In CAR, a journalist who wrote about alleged corruption in the National Assembly fled the country, following threats from an unidentified source. In Mali, human rights defender Aminata Dicko was forced into exile after denouncing abuses by the armed forces in a briefing to the UN Security Council, following which the gendarmerie summoned her for questioning in connection to allegations of high treason and defamation.

In Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad, Niger, Togo and elsewhere, authorities suspended media houses, newspaper outlets or news websites for various periods. Faced with social or political upheavals, authorities in Ethiopia, Guinea, Mauritania and Senegal suspended or disrupted internet access. Nigeria’s National Broadcasting Commission imposed punitive fines on 25 stations over their coverage of the 2023 general elections for allegedly breaching the broadcasting code. Other authorities went further, including in Benin where the Gazette du Golfe press group was suspended indefinitely. In Burkina Faso, two foreign correspondents were expelled from the country and in Niger, L’Évènement newspaper was closed for alleged non-payment of taxes.

Freedom of association

Severe and unwarranted restrictions on the right to freedom of association increased. Opposition parties were targeted and their ability to organize and freely conduct their activities was stifled. In Burundi, authorities suspended almost all activities of the main opposition party, the National Congress for Liberty. Following the July coup in Niger, the military suspended all activities by political parties indefinitely. In Uganda, campaign gatherings and other activities of the National Unity Platform party were suspended. On a positive note, Tanzania’s president lifted a 2016 ban on political parties organizing rallies and other political activities.

Authorities continued to weaponize laws to curtail human rights, including the right to freedom of association. In Angola, the NGO bill that, according to NGOs, could limit the right to freedom of association and give the executive excessive powers to interfere in their activities, was approved by parliament.

Arbitrary arrests and detentions, and torture and other ill-treatment

Arbitrary arrests and detention remained widespread. Mass arrests and detention, in many cases, were used during the dispersal by security forces of protests or during the enforcement of states of emergency. In August, the Ethiopian government imposed a six-month nationwide state of emergency, following armed clashes between the army and the Fano militia in the Amhara region. It provided the pretext for the detention of hundreds of people who were denied access to lawyers and courts. In Senegal, over 1,000 people were arrested and detained mostly for participating in protests, or for their alleged connection to the opposition party, PASTEF.

In other countries, including Botswana, Burundi, Niger and Zimbabwe, high-profile political figures were arrested or arbitrarily detained. In Botswana, several leaders of the Botswana Patriotic Front opposition party, and two journalists, were arrested and detained without charge for up to two days. Following the coup in Niger, President Bazoum and his family were detained in the presidential complex. Several other former government and ruling party officials were detained without charge. In Zimbabwe, Jacob Ngarivhume, the leader of opposition party Transform Zimbabwe was acquitted on appeal eight months after being sentenced to 48 months’ imprisonment (12 suspended). He had been arrested in July 2020 for leading and organizing anti-corruption protests.

Arbitrary arrests and detention were also reported in the DRC, Equatorial Guinea, Mali and elsewhere.

Torture and other ill-treatment in detention remained a grave concern. Suspicious deaths in police custody were reported in several countries, including Equatorial Guinea, Lesotho, Mauritania and Nigeria. In Mauritania, human rights defender Souvi Ould Jibril Ould Cheine died after interrogation at a police station. An official autopsy concluded that his death was due to strangulation, contradicting the authorities’ claim that he died of a heart attack. The public prosecutor ordered the arrest of the commissioner and police officers involved. In Nigeria, Faiz Abdullahi died in police custody in Kaduna state, after being tortured during interrogation. A 17-year-old student, died in hospital following torture during interrogation by police in Adamawa state.

Extrajudicial executions and enforced disappearances

In several countries, extrajudicial executions and other unlawful killings, and enforced disappearances continued to be used as tools of repression. In Burkina Faso, public figures were abducted or arrested and forcibly disappeared, including the national president of an organization representing pastoralists’ interests. In Burundi, reports of enforced disappearances, mostly of political opponents, continued; the National Intelligence Service and members of the ruling party’s youth wing, the Imbonerakure, were the main alleged perpetrators. In Eritrea, the fate and whereabouts of 11 members of the G-15, a group of 15 senior politicians who spoke publicly against the president in 2001, remained unknown along with that of 16 journalists accused of being linked to the G-15.

Governments must end the harassment and intimidation of journalists, human rights defenders, activists, and opposition members and leaders; immediately and unconditionally release anyone who is arbitrarily detained; and ensure media freedom is respected, including by allowing media outlets to operate independently.

Economic and social rights

Right to food

Many African countries were among the world’s most affected by high food price inflation. The number of food insecure people reached staggering proportions. The World Food Programme estimated that as of February, 78% of Sierra Leone’s population was food insecure and 20% of households were severely food insecure. In December, OCHA said that 5.83 million people (46%) of South Sudan’s population were experiencing high levels of food insecurity. In Namibia, acute food insecurity rose sharply, affecting 22% of the population.

Climate change and extreme weather events exacerbated the food crisis. In Madagascar, food insecurity increased after two cyclones struck in January and February, destroying cash crops and hindering humanitarian aid delivery to affected areas. In Somalia, an estimated 5 million people experienced food crisis; drought devastated the agriculture sector, which provides up to 90% of its exports.

Armed conflicts compounded the situation. In Burkina Faso, armed groups besieged at least 46 towns and cities, cutting off access to essential supplies, blocking residents’ access to their farmlands and sabotaging water infrastructure. International aid agencies suspended food aid to Ethiopia’s Tigray region for six months following evidence of supplies being diverted, allegedly by government agencies and the military. Over 4 million already food insecure people were affected, and hundreds reportedly died as a result.

Governments took measures to combat inflation and ensure a stable food supply to the domestic market. These included Sierra Leone’s adoption of a programme to increase agricultural productivity and food self-sufficiency, and Côte d’Ivoire’s suspension of rice and sugar exports. Meanwhile, the international response was insufficient. International funds assigned to food security in Chad was USD 96.9 million as of September, USD 128.1 million short of what was needed. In South Sudan, funding shortfalls for the UN’s humanitarian project meant that emergency food assistance had to be prioritized for people experiencing the highest levels of food insecurity.

Right to education

The right to education was denied or severely impeded in conflict-affected countries, particularly in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, the DRC and Niger. In Burkina Faso, at least 6,549 schools were closed as of October, and only about 539 reopening during the year, affecting over one million children. In Cameroon, at least 13 violent incidents against educational establishments were reported in the Northwest and Southwest regions, including the abduction of children and teachers, between January and July, and at least 2,245 schools were closed. In the DRC, the education of around 750,000 children was disrupted in two of the most conflict-affected provinces in the east. Thousands of schools were attacked, forced to close due to insecurity, or used as shelters for displaced people.

On a positive note, Zambia’s Free Education Programme for primary school age children began in January under which an extra 4,500 teachers were recruited. In Tanzania, there was an overall increase in enrolment and literacy rates, and a reduction in barriers to children’s access to school. However, despite the lifting in 2022 of the ban on pregnant girls and adolescent mothers attending mainstream schools, low retention rates continued.

Right to health

Access to healthcare in many countries remained a challenge. The Ghana Health Service revealed in February that 27 pregnant women in Bawku municipality died between 2021 and 2022 due to their inability to access medical services. In South Africa, a strike action in March relating to wage disputes, hindered access to healthcare services and resulted in four deaths, according to the health minister. Meanwhile, shigellosis, cholera, typhoid and other disease epidemics were reported in Congo, South Sudan and elsewhere.

Forced evictions

Governments continued to carry out forced evictions in the name of development projects. In Benin, thousands of people who had been forcibly evicted in connection with tourism projects along the coast, between the cities of Cotonou and Ouidah, complained about the lack of adequate compensation. In the DRC’s Lualaba province, the expansion of industrial-scale cobalt and copper mines, driven by the growing global demand for energy transition minerals, fuelled forced evictions of thousands of people from their homes and farmland.

In Uganda’s Hoima district, security forces used violence to forcibly evict nearly 500 families from their land to allow for the construction of the East African Crude Oil Pipeline. In Tanzania, at least 67 Maasai Indigenous People were arrested, mainly in Endulen village, for refusing to leave their ancestral lands under ongoing enforced relocation plans to establish a protected wildlife area in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area.

Governments must take immediate action to address socio-economic hardships, ensuring that resources are made available, in line with their minimum core obligations, to provide their populations with economic and social rights.

Internally displaced peoples’, refugees’ and migrants’ rights

Nearly 7 million people were estimated to be internally displaced in the DRC, the highest number in Africa. The country hosted 500,000 refugees from armed conflict and persecution in other African countries. Between January and August, around 45,000 people fled the DRC for neighbouring countries, including Uganda which hosted over 1.6 million refugees, the largest refugee population in Africa.

Over 5.8 million people were internally displaced since April in Sudan, making it the scene of the largest displacement crisis in the world in 2023. Over 4.5 million of them were displaced between April – when the conflict began – and October, while about 1.4 million Sudanese and other nationalities fled to neighbouring countries. However, some countries denied Sudanese asylum seekers entry; the Egyptian authorities required all Sudanese nationals to obtain an entry visa issued by the Egyptian consular office in Sudan, and introduced the additional entry requirement of security clearance for boys and men aged between 16 and 50.

In Niger, around 9,000 refugees and migrants who had been deported by the Algerian authorities arrived at the border village of Assamaka between January and April. In Malawi, police arrested hundreds of refugees from their homes and businesses in the capital, relocating them to the Dzaleka refugee camp.

Governments must honour their obligations to provide protection to refugees, asylum seekers and migrants, including by respecting the right to claim asylum and to non-refoulement.

Discrimination

Women’s and girls’ rights

The devastating effects of female genital mutilation were illustrated when a two-year-old girl died after being subjected to the practice in Sierra Leone. Child, early and forced marriage persisted in the region. Nearly 29% of women aged between 20 and 24 in Zambia had been married before they were 18. The case of 16-year-old Nazira who ended her life to escape a forced marriage shone a spotlight on the harm caused by early marriage in Niger.

There were several positive legislative developments. The DRC enacted a law criminalizing gender-based intimidation and stigmatization. In Sierra Leone, a new law required that 30% of seats in public office be held by women. In South Africa, a bill intended to establish a body to oversee the implementation of a strategic plan on gender-based violence was released for public comment.

LGBTI people’s rights

Some countries took anti-gay legislative steps. In Uganda a new law introducing the death penalty for the offence of “aggravated homosexuality” was followed by reports of increased violence against LGBTI people. In Kenya, an MP proposed a bill that could further criminalize consensual same-sex sexual relations. In Ghana, parliament approved an anti-gay bill. In Eswatini, the government flouted a court ruling when it refused to register an LGBTI organization.

The arrest and detention of LGBTI people was common. In Burundi, 24 people were arrested in February in Gitega at a workshop on economic inclusion. They, and two others later added to the case, were prosecuted on charges of “homosexuality” and “incitement to debauchery”. Seven were found guilty in August and nine of those acquitted were not immediately released, one of whom died in custody. In Nigeria, 69 men faced criminal trial for organizing a gay wedding in Delta state while another group of 59 men and 17 women were arrested in Gombe state for allegedly holding a “gay” birthday party.

Anti-gay rhetoric increased in Botswana, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi and Tanzania. In Botswana and Malawi, hundreds of protesters, backed by religious groups and government officials, demonstrated against the decriminalization of consensual same-sex sexual relations. In Cameroon, authorities threatened to suspend media outlets if they broadcast “programmes promoting homosexual practices”. In Ethiopia, an on- and offline campaign against LGBTI people was launched by social media influencers, religious leaders and popular artists. In Tanzania, the education minister banned books that include LGBTI content from schools.

On a positive note, Namibia’s supreme court ruled that spouses of Namibian citizens could regularize their immigration status based on same-sex marriages concluded outside the country; and Kenya’s supreme court affirmed the right to freedom of association for LGBTI people.

Persons with albinism

Crimes against persons with albinism, including reports of attempted abductions, physical attacks and desecration of graves, increased in Malawi. In Angola, the National Action Plan for the Protection and Promotion of the Human Rights of Persons with Albinism was adopted.

Governments must urgently combat all forms of gender-based discrimination and violence against women and girls, including by addressing the root causes, and increasing efforts to eliminate harmful practices. Governments must strengthen protections of LGBTI people’s rights including through legislation, and by effectively investigating reports of abuse and bringing suspected perpetrators to justice.

Right to a healthy environment

Several countries were affected by extreme weather events, the intensity and frequency of which could be related to climate change. However, governments were ill-prepared to respond to slow and rapid onset weather events across the region. In February and March, Cyclone Freddy affected millions of people in Malawi and Mozambique, killing 679 and 453 people, respectively. Floods claimed many lives in several other countries, including the DRC and Rwanda. In September, the first Africa Climate Summit was held in Nairobi to establish a united African position ahead of negotiations at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP28).

Governments must take immediate measures to protect against the risk and impacts of the climate crisis and strengthen their preparedness for extreme weather events, including by seeking international assistance and climate finance from developed countries to adopt effective mitigation and adaptation policies, and to remediate the loss and damages experienced by the most marginalized.

Right to truth, justice and reparation

Following the Ethiopian government’s cynical campaign to frustrate justice and accountability initiatives, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights prematurely terminated the mandate of its Commission of Inquiry into the situation in the Tigray Region, without publishing any findings. The government also targeted the UN International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia (ICHREE), resulting in the failure by member states at the UN Human Rights Council to table a resolution to renew ICHREE’s mandate. Meanwhile, Burundi walked out of its review session at the UN Human Rights Committee, objecting to the presence of a human rights defender convicted in his absence on false accusations of participating in the 2015 coup attempt, while Tanzania prevented a UNESCO fact-finding delegation from visiting Ngorongoro to investigate reports of violent forced evictions against the Maasai Indigenous People.

Several countries introduced or considered introducing truth and reconciliation processes, albeit at the expense of pursuing justice and accountability for victims of crimes under international law and other serious human rights violations and abuses. The DRC’s government adopted the Draft National Transitional Justice Policy, and the Ethiopian government started consultations for the adoption of a similar policy.

In South Sudan, the Council of Ministers approved two draft bills to establish the Commission for Truth, Reconciliation and Healing and the Compensation and Reparation Authority, which were yet to be tabled for debate in parliament. However, it continued to block the establishment of the Hybrid Court for South Sudan. Authorities in the Gambia agreed to establish a hybrid court to prosecute suspected perpetrators of serious human rights violations during Yahya Jammeh’s presidency.

Several suspected perpetrators of crimes under international law were arrested. CAR’s Special Criminal Court announced the arrests of four men accused of war crimes and/or crimes against humanity. Steps were taken to bring two genocide suspects to account: Fulgence Kayishema was re-arrested on a new arrest warrant that would allow his extradition to the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals in Tanzania while Théoneste Niyongira was deported from Malawi to Rwanda.

Governments must strengthen efforts to fight impunity by undertaking prompt, thorough, independent, impartial, effective and transparent investigations into crimes under international law and other serious human rights violations and abuses, bringing suspected perpetrators to justice and ensuring victims’ access to an effective remedy.