In light of the unfolding human rights crisis in Sudan, and notwithstanding efforts to stop the fighting by the African Union (AU), the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and other regional and international actors, non-governmental organisations wrote...
CIVILIANS UNDER ATTACK IN SUDAN: A ROBUST AU RESPONSE REQUIRED
19 April 2023 “I believe the drafters of the Constitutive Act anticipated scenarios similar to the one obtaining in Sudan, when they coined article 4(h). Africans can not stand by and continue to watch atrocities being committed in Sudan without taking all necessary...
THE AFRICAN UNION MUST ACT NOW TO AVOID FURTHER LOSS OF LIFE IN SUDAN
15 February 2023 “60 years into Africa’s unity, the African Union cannot afford to sit back and watch conflict harm and affect the lives of Africans again and again. Silencing the guns and taking decisive action against autocracy, to protect African lives must be the...
Letter to the UN Human Rights Council on the threats to terminate the mandate of the ICHREE
Re: Threats to Terminate the Mandate of the International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia To: Permanent Representatives of Member and Observer States of the United Nations Human Rights Council Excellencies, We, the undersigned civil society and human...
RISK OF INCREASED VIOLENCE IN NIGERIA’S 2023 ELECTIONS
Nigerians were promised free, fair and transparent general elections in 2023, but what seems clear now is that the electoral process will be flawed and violent. However, action can still be taken to avoid the worst outcomes. Atrocities Watch Africa (AWA) and Global...
Discussion on the Ethiopian Peace Process: filling in the gaps
After two years of fighting the Ethiopian federal government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) signed a Cessation of Hostilities Agreement,[1] on 2 November 2022 in Pretoria South Africa. This was followed by the signing of an Executive Declaration on...
ACHPR: strengthen the mandate of the Commission of Inquiry on Ethiopia
To the Commissioners and Special Mechanisms of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) 25 October 2022 The ACHPR should strengthen the mandate of the Commission of Inquiry on Ethiopia and adopt a strong resolution condemning ongoing human rights...
ACHPR: continue to support the Sudanese people and call for the installation of a civilian government
To the Commissioners and Special Mechanisms of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights 25 October 2022 The ACHPR should continue its strong support of the Sudanese people and call for the installation of a civilian government in the wake of the 2021...
Letter to UN Member States on the re-election of Sudan to the UN Human Rights Council
To The Permanent Representatives All UN Member StatesUNGA, New York 06 October 2022 Sub: Re-election of Sudan to the UN Human Rights Council (2023-2025) Excellency, We, representatives of the undersigned non-governmental organization are writing to you this letter...
Letter to the UN Human Rights Council to extend the mandate of the ICHREE
Extend the mandate of the International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia. 21 September, 2022 Your Excellencies, The African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies (ACJPS) and Atrocities Watch Africa (AWA) urge the UN Human Rights Council (from now on...
SUDAN: Letter to President of the US, Establishing a Line of Defense for Democracy in Sudan through Targeted Sanctions
August 31, 2022 RE: Establishing a Line of Defense for Democracy in Sudan through Targeted Sanctions Dear President Biden, We, the undersigned 101 human rights organizations, scholars and leading activists, urged you in May of this year to impose targeted sanctions on...
NIGERIA 2023: A MAJOR TEST FOR DEMOCRACY IN NEED OF CRITICAL SUPPORT
Nigerians will head to the polls on 25 February 2023 to select a new president and national assembly, and on 11 March to select new governors and State Houses of Assembly. Current President Buhari is set to step down after serving eight years in office. He has...
CSO letter to the South African President C. Ramaphosa on the eve of the 47th G7 summit
HE President Cyril RamaphosaPresident of the Republic of South Africa 23 June 2022 H.E. President Cyril Ramaphosa, As you prepare to meet with the Leaders of the G7 at Schloss Elmau this weekend, we, the undersigned group of African and international civil...
Hate speech and incitement of violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Kampala, Uganda23rd June 2022 Atrocities Watch Africa (AWA) is deeply concerned about recent hate speech in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Discourse instigating hatred, violence and discrimination of Kinyarwanda speakers both Rwandan and Congolese, calling on...
African Civil Society’s letter to the United Nations Security Council on the ongoing situation in Ethiopia
18 May 2022 Your excellency, We, the undersigned, write on behalf of our members across the African continent and concerned Africans everywhere to ask you to provide leadership in ending the ongoing war in Ethiopia. Since November 2020, the federal government under...
“We will erase you from this land,” Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International joint report reactions.
From Atrocities Watch Monitor N° 4, May 2022Read full newsletter here. On 5 April 2022, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch released a joint report based on information collected between November 2020 and March 2022 through 427 interviews and other...
Letter to UN Human Rights Council on Sudan: Ensure continued public debates on the human rights situation
To Permanent Representatives of Member and Observer States of the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council (Geneva, Switzerland) 19 May 2022 Sudan: Ensure continued public debates on the human rights situation Excellencies, Following the military coup of 25 October...
Africans Caught Up in the Ukraine War
From Atrocities Watch Monitor No. 3 April 2022. Read full newsletter here Six weeks on from the start of Russian military advances in Ukraine, the crisis has sparked Europe’s largest refugee crisis since World War II. More than 4 million Ukrainians had fled the...
Letter to US Congress – The Sudanese Revolution Stands with the Ukrainian People
The Sudanese Revolution Stands with the Ukrainian People | February 26, 2022 Dear Members of Congress, The people of Sudan recognize and support the courage the world admires in the people of Ukraine as they risk their lives to save their country from defeat by a...
Sudan: Letter to Permanent Representatives of Member and Observer States of the UN Human Rights Council
26 Jan 2022 To Permanent Representatives of Member and Observer States of the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council, Geneva, Switzerland The Human Rights Council action at Sudan’s UPR Excellencies, Ahead of the 3rd cycle Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of Sudan on...
African Citizens’ Letter to the United Nations Secretary General On the risk of genocide in Ethiopia
Dear Mr. Secretary-General, Concerning the Need to Take Urgent Action to Prevent Genocide in Ethiopia We, the undersigned, write on behalf of ourselves, our members across the regions of the African continent and the Diaspora and on behalf of concerned...
Open Letter to the United Nations Security Council
Your Excellencies, As concerned citizens from Africa standing in solidarity with the people of South Sudan, we write to you as you approach a critical decision that could have lasting implications for the fragile peace and the future stability of Africa’s youngest...
Sudan – Political Agreement
On November 21st, 2021, a political agreement was signed between military coup leader, Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, and former Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok. The agreement reinstates Hamdok as Sudan’s Prime Minister, calls for the release of all political prisoners as well...
Letter to the AU and IGAD on the Sudanese Military Coup
We stand in solidarity with the people of Sudan and we demand more resolute action from the African Union (AU), the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and the United Nations (UN) We, the undersigned organizations and individuals, are deeply concerned...
Dear Ethiopia
Not the Nobel Prize: Giving war criminals the attention they deserve
War criminals don’t get the recognition they deserve, believes Dismas Nkunda, a Ugandan journalist and activist who has covered the war in South Sudan extensively. So he decided to do something about it. “I had to find a way of shaming those who were bottlenecks to...
Public encouraged to nominate the worst peace spoilers in South Sudan
January 9, 2020 Public encouraged to nominate the worst peace spoilers in South Sudan (Kampala) – A Ugandan-based organisation, Atrocities Watch Africa, has today called on the wider public to nominate individuals and entities from, or linked with, South Sudan for a...
Road to the Burundi Referendum 2018
On May 17 2018, Burundians will go to the polls for a referendum in which the people will decide whether or not the president’s term of office should be extended from five to seven years. The opposition in Burundi has seen this as a violation to the constitution and...
DAY 5 OF AGE LIMIT PROCEEDINGS
After its adjournment on Thursday 12 April, the court hearing on the age limit petition resumed on 17 April for the cross examinations of the witnesses that had been summoned by the court. The list of witnesses to be cross examined included Betty Nambooze, the Mukono...
Age Limit Petition day 4: Defense presents their case
The fourth day of the age limit petition carried both a serious and hilarious tone, being the first day the defense was to present its case to the court. The deputy attorney general Mwesigwa Rukutana with his team of lawyers including Christine Kawa, the solicitor...
Day two of the Age Limit Petition
The second day of the constitutional amendment petition hearing started off with the court house being made available to the public to follow the proceedings. The petitioners continued to present their case they pointed out that the clause to extend the MPs term of...
Mutilation and brutality
One of the enduring images of the Free State was the severed hands which became "the most potent symbol of colonial brutality". The practice was comparatively common in colonial Africa (by the Portuguese in Cabinda, for example)[28] and originated in connection with...
The Rwandan Genocide (1994)
On April 6, 1994, the airplane carrying Juvénal Habyarimana, the President of Rwanda, and Cyprien Ntaryamira, the Hutu President of Burundi, was shot down as it prepared to land at Kigali. Both presidents were killed when the plane crashed. Military and militia groups...
20th century’s first genocide
Namibia, then known as South-West Africa, became a German colony in 1884 under the rule of Otto von Bismarck and was lost to the British during the First World War. In 1904 the Herero and Nama people launched a rebellion against German colonial rule, over the specific...
Red Rubber system and forced labour
With the majority of the Free State's revenues derived from the export of rubber, a labour policy (known by critics as the "Red Rubber system") was created to maximise its extraction. Labour was demanded by the administration as taxation. This created a "slave...
The 1972 and 1993 Burundi genocides
In April of 1972, a rebellion broke out in Burundi led by Hutu army officers against the purge by the mainly Tutsi government of President Michombero. In response to the rebellion, the government using youth militias went on a killing spree that led to the death of...
The 1959 Genocide in Rwanda
One of the most contested version of a genocide was the event of 1959 in Rwanda. Was it genocide against Tutsi or was it a genuine national peasant revolution? When the Hutu rebelled against the Belgians and Tutsi elites that resulted in the death of about 20,000...
The Herero People in Namibia
It took 100 years after genocide for the German perpetrators to say « sorry » to the Herero and Namaqua tribes of Namibia. While the United Nations classified the atrocities to the two tribes as genocide in 1985, it was not until 2015 that the Germans said: “We...
King Leopold of Belgium in Congo
According to American writer, Adam Hochschold, King Leopold II of Belgium, like any other European power seeking new territory in Africa, carved for himself and took control of the vast un-exploited land on the banks of the River Congo in the present day...
Mau Mau
The Mau Mau movement of Kenya was a nationalist armed peasant revolt against the British colonial state, its policies, and its local supporters. The overwhelming majority of the Mau Mau fighters and of their supporters, who formed the “passive wing,” came from the...
Intervening Years
In the intervening years the most dramatic upheaval occurs in British Somaliland, where the uprising led by Mohammed ibn Abdullah Hassan (known to the British at the time as the Mad Mullah) takes two decades to suppress. Member of Interim south west administration...
Colonial competitors: 1839-1897
European interest in Somalia develops after 1839, when the British begin to use Aden, on the south coast of Arabia, as a coaling station for ships on the route to India. The British garrison requires meat. The easiest local source is the Somali coast. France and...
Violations by pro-Gbagbo Forces
Attacks Against West African Immigrants Residents from other West African countries, notably Burkina Faso, Mali, Guinea, Senegal, Niger, and Nigeria, are being subjected to a steady and increasingly violent stream of abuses by militiamen and members of the security...
Atrocities in Ivory Coast
(Abidjan) - The three-month campaign of organized violence by security forces under the control of Laurent Gbagbo and militias that support him gives every indication of amounting to crimes against humanity. A new Human Rights Watch investigation in Abidjan indicates...
Inside Story: Why is Boko Haram teaming up with ISIL?
"The victims were well targeted because they were all residents of Gwargware village... who fled to Miringa some months ago to escape forced conscription by Boko Haram." Al Jazeera's Yvonne Ndege, reporting from Abuja, said Boko Haram had embarked on a "really bloody...
‘Escaped conscription’
Witnesses described how the fighters entered the homes and executed the men in Miringa. Resident Baballe Mohammed, said the gunmen came to the village around 1.30am on Friday morning. They "picked 13 men from selected homes and took them to the Eid prayer ground...
Week 17 Report on Burundi
Burundi’s political situation remains tense, with continued reports of enforced disappearances, abductions, extra judicial killings, and incommunicado detention of political activists amongst other grave violations. All these incidents are directly linked to...
Week 16 Report on Burundi
Burundi’s political situation remains tense, with continued reports of enforced disappearances, abductions, extra judicial killings, and incommunicado detention of political activists amongst other grave violations. All these incidents are directly linked to...
Week 15 Report on Burundi
Burundi’s political situation remains tense, with continued reports of enforced disappearances, abductions, extra judicial killings, and incommunicado detention of political activists amongst other grave violations. All these incidents are directly linked to...
Week 14 Report on Burundi
As the violence from the contested 2015 elections continue to be recorded, efforts by regional actors through the East African Community, and the African Union to resolve the political, human rights and humanitarian crisis continues to suffer sets. During the...