Africa 2025
Major armed conflicts in the region continued largely unabated, while diplomatic efforts to end them failed to stop associated violations, protect civilians or hold perpetrators to account. External actors continued to fuel the conflicts, including by supplying ammunition and weapons to the parties involved.
The AU’s 2014 goal to “eliminate hunger and food insecurity by 2025” was unrealized. Fragile health systems in the region came under further strain due to US government aid cuts, resulting in essential health services being reduced, suspended or cancelled.
Governments treated protests as a threat, violently dispersing, unduly restricting or banning them. Repression escalated in the context of elections, with military-led regimes clamping down on critical voices in the name of national security.
Millions of people continued to be displaced by conflict and climate-induced disasters, with Sudan remaining the scene of the largest and fastest-growing displacement crisis worldwide.
Governments and the international community failed to protect people in the region from droughts and floods exacerbated by climate change.
Societal norms and anti-rights actors continued to fuel discrimination and gender-based violence against women and girls. Meanwhile, governments weaponized legal systems to target and discriminate against LGBTI people.
Authorities undermined efforts to combat impunity and to ensure accountability, jeopardizing access to justice and effective remedies for victims and survivors of the most serious crimes.
Unlawful attacks and killings
The conflict in Sudan continued to escalate, with the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) recapturing the capital, Khartoum, and Gezira state from the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) during January and February. As they regained control, the SAF and their allies targeted civilians with reprisal attacks. In Gezira state, they targeted members of the Kanabi community, accusing them of collaborating with the RSF. They killed civilians, burned homes and looted property and livestock. In October, the RSF seized control of El Fasher, North Darfur, following an 18-month siege of the city. After the takeover, RSF fighters carried out mass civilian killings, subjected women and girls to rape and other sexual violence and took hostages for ransom. The RSF also escalated attacks in the Kordofan region, including against the town of Bara in North Kordofan, where they carried out summary killings. Meanwhile, external actors continued to fuel the conflict, supplying weapons to parties to the conflict. The United Arab Emirates provided advanced Chinese weaponry to the RSF, which the group used in Darfur.
In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the conflict in the east intensified in January and February when the March 23 Movement (M23), a Rwandan-backed armed group, captured the cities of Goma and Bukavu in North and South-Kivu provinces, respectively. It unlawfully killed civilians, and subjected detainees to torture and other ill-treatment, and inhumane conditions. Its fighters attacked hospitals in Goma and abducted patients and caregivers and, in some cases, Congolese soldiers hiding in the hospitals. Between 28 January and 9 April, M23 killed more than 200 people in Goma. It also killed at least 319 others between 9 and 21 July in Rutshuru territory. Armed groups operating in Ituri province were also brutal; the Cooperative for the Development for Congo/Union of Revolutionaries for the Defence of Congolese People killed more than 150 people in January and February. Between July and August, the Allied Democratic Forces (a Ugandan armed group) killed more than 250 civilians in Ituri and in Lubero, North Kivu.
Reports of unlawful attacks and killings by government forces and armed groups continued in other long-standing conflicts in the region, including in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, the Central African Republic (CAR), Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Somalia and South Sudan. In Burkina Faso, the military and its allied militia, the Volunteers for the Defence of the Homeland, killed at least 58 civilians in and around Solenzo, a town in the Bankui region, between 10 and 11 March. Video footage of the massacre was widely circulated on social media. In Mali, the military, in some cases aided by members of the Wagner group (a Russian private military group), were implicated in multiple cases of summary executions of civilians. In April, dozens of men were executed by gunshot and their bodies dumped near the Kwala military camp in the Koulikoro region. In May, soldiers cut the throats of between 23 and 27 men whose bodies were buried in mass graves. Meanwhile, Mali’s humanitarian situation worsened as armed groups imposed blockades on several towns and cities, including the capital Bamako. In February, around 34 civilians were killed in an attack by the Islamic State in the Sahel on a civilian convoy that was being escorted by Malian security forces near Kobé village, close to the city of Gao. Mozambique’s conflict between government forces and the armed group Al-Shabaab in Cabo Delgado province spread in November to Nampula province. It resulted in scores of civilian deaths, mainly in Cabo Delgado.
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
Incidents of conflict-related sexual violence continued at an alarming rate, including in CAR, the DRC, Somalia, South Sudan and Sudan. In CAR, where the practice remained widespread and under-reported, the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic logged 295 cases in a nine-month period, for which members of the Return, Reclamation and Rehabilitation armed group were the main alleged perpetrators, followed by government forces. In eastern DRC, incidents of sexual violence, including conflict-related sexual violence, were staggeringly high. According to the UN, between January and September there were more than 81,000 rapes, an increase of 31.5% compared with the same period in 2024. Documented violations in eastern DRC included gang rape against women by M23, the Congolese army and Wazalendo (a coalition of armed groups, some backed by the Congolese army). In Sudan, the RSF used sexual violence in a widespread and systematic manner to humiliate, punish, assert control, inflict fear and displace women and their communities, including in Khartoum and in towns and villages in the states of Gezira, and north and south Darfur. The UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for the Sudan (FFM) reported that the SAF also committed sexual violence, including rape, sexual harassment and sexualized torture against women and men, particularly during detention in the White Nile, Blue Nile, Khartoum and Northern states.
Parties to armed conflicts must issue clear orders to their members or forces, prohibiting acts of sexual and gender-based violence; they must ensure support for protection, care, treatment, and pyscho-social support mechanisms for survivors in areas under their control.
Economic and social rights
Right to food
Climate, economic and conflict-related shocks exacerbated the region’s hunger crisis. As of July, more than 307 million people, more than 20% of the region’s population, were affected by hunger. In several countries, food shortages were exacerbated by aid cuts, including those by the US government. In Madagascar, US government aid cuts compounded the hunger crisis caused by severe climate change-related droughts. Around 8,000 children in the Grand Sud region were admitted to specialist health centres in February with severe acute malnutrition. In Malawi, where poor harvests contributed to food insecurity, malnutrition rates rose sharply from 4.4 to 7.1%.
People in countries wracked by conflict faced particularly dire conditions, with at least 50% of the populations of South Sudan and Sudan experiencing acute food insecurity. In South Sudan, an estimated 28,000 people experienced catastrophic hunger. In Sudan, famine conditions were confirmed in various areas, and millions were at risk of starvation. In Mali, food security was undermined by blockades imposed by armed groups on several towns and cities, including Gossi, Léré, Diafarabé, Kayes and Nioro du Sahel.
Right to education
Millions of children across the region were denied access to education due to conflict and insecurity. In Cameroon’s North-west and South-west regions, 14,829 schools were closed, disrupting the education of more than 3 million children and increasing the risk of recruitment of children into non-state armed groups. In Chad, UNICEF reported that 849,000 children were out of school in the eastern region as of 31 March. In Mali, 2,036 schools were non-functional, affecting 618,000 children. In South Sudan, more than 70% of children were out of school, according to UNICEF.
Right to health
Due to the US government aid cuts, the provision of essential health services for HIV, malaria, tuberculosis, and sexual and reproductive health was interrupted or scaled down in countries, including Cameroon, CAR, Ghana, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, South Sudan and Zambia. In CAR, the UN Population Fund said in May that the cuts jeopardized sexual and reproductive health services for nearly 70,000 women and girls, amid high levels of reported rape, child marriage and female genital mutilation. In Lesotho, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, South Africa and Zambia, the cuts terminated funding for tuberculosis and HIV services, resulting in the closure of clinics and staff retrenchments. In Lesotho alone, around 1,500 health workers employed through donor-supported programmes reportedly lost their jobs.
Forced evictions
Governments continued to carry out forced evictions, leaving many people homeless and destitute. In Ethiopia, thousands of people were forcibly evicted in 60 cities, including the capital, Addis Ababa, under the Corridor Development project, described by authorities as an urban development project to “[improve] infrastructure, housing and public spaces”. Authorities harassed residents who challenged their eviction and intimidated people covering the issue for media outlets. In Nigeria, at least four people were killed in February during a violent forced eviction carried out by Kano state government at Rimin Auzinawa, in Ungogo local government authority. In March, more than 10,000 people were rendered homeless when the Lagos state government carried out a violent forced eviction of the Ilaje-Otumara community.
Governments must ensure access to economic and social rights, including swift action to prevent hunger, and identify and address the causes of food insecurity; endorse and implement the Safe Schools Declaration, and double their efforts to ensure children’s access to education in conflict zones. They should allocate at least 15% of national budgets to the public health sector in line with the Abuja Declaration and ensure that policies do not impede access to the right to health. They should end and prohibit forced evictions, and adopt moratoriums on mass evictions, pending adequate legal and procedural safeguards to ensure compliance with international human rights laws and standards.
Repression of dissent
Freedom of peaceful assembly
Many lives were lost when security forces repressed protests with unlawful, including lethal, force. In Tanzania, a deadly crackdown on post-election protesters resulted in hundreds of deaths between late October and early November. In Kenya, at least 19 people were killed on 25 June when the police used unlawful force against youth-led protests marking the anniversary of protests that had resulted in at least 60 deaths in 2024. At least 38 others were killed on 7 July during nationwide protests marking the 35th anniversary of the Saba Saba Day pro-democracy demonstrations. In Cameroon, at least 48 people were killed in October during protests contesting the president’s re-election to an eighth term, according to a Reuters report citing UN sources. In Madagascar, at least 22 people were killed in September and October during protests against poor governance. In Togo, civil society organizations reported the deaths of seven people following the violent repression of protests in the capital, Lome, in late June.
In other countries, including Angola, Botswana, Burundi, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Eswatini and Niger, authorities unduly restricted, prohibited or imposed blanket bans on protests or gatherings, especially those organized by the opposition or government critics. People who still dared to protest were beaten or arbitrarily detained. In Côte d’Ivoire, more than 1,600 opposition supporters were arrested during protests in October that had been unlawfully banned by the authorities. Even demonstrations demanding workers’ rights were treated as a threat, be they medical workers in Ethiopia or those attending a National Union of State Suppliers sit-in in Côte d’Ivoire. Protesters also faced criminal charges solely for exercising their right to freedom of peaceful assembly. For example, more than 500 protesters in Kenya were charged with various offences, including under anti-terrorism legislation.
Freedom of expression
The right to freedom of expression remained under threat across the region as government critics faced arrest, arbitrary detention and judicial harassment. In Angola, António Frederico Gonçalves was arbitrarily detained for more than five months without charge in connection with an online video he allegedly posted calling on Angolans to show unity with Ibrahim Traoré, Burkina Faso’s interim president. In Guinea, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Zimbabwe several individuals were imprisoned for “insulting the president”.
In Kenya, Albert Ojwang died in police custody in suspicious circumstances following his arrest in connection to an online post calling for government accountability. In Mali, former prime minister Moussa Mara was sentenced to one year’s imprisonment for a post on X in which he said he would “fight by all means” for the rights of those imprisoned for expressing their opinions. In Lesotho, social media activist Tšolo Thakeli was charged with sedition for posting a video criticizing the government’s economic record, a charge that had a chilling effect on other activists and social media users. In Tanzania, the prosecution of opposition leader Tundu Lissu for treason, simply for urging his supporters to boycott the 29 October general elections, represented the broader crackdown on dissenting voices in the country.
There was no let-up in the harassment of journalists who were arbitrarily arrested and detained in many countries, including Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, CAR, Ethiopia, Niger, Nigeria, Mozambique, Somalia, Uganda and Zimbabwe. In Burkina Faso authorities went even further, using targeted conscription to silence journalists and other dissenting voices. In Ethiopia, many journalists were taken into custody by masked men and held incommunicado. In Uganda security forces attacked tens of journalists covering parliamentary elections in Kawempe in the capital, Kampala.
Throughout the region, it was common for authorities to sanction independent media outlets, including in Benin, Burkina Faso, Eritrea, Guinea, Kenya, Mozambique, Niger, Senegal, Togo and Uganda. Local and international outlets were targeted, ranging from the 48-hour suspension of Vida and Encontro radio stations in Mozambique to the suspension of Le Patriote newspaper in Benin for around five months. In Kenya, regulators issued a directive ordering radio and television stations to cease live broadcasts of the 25 June protests, claiming they would violate the Constitution. In Nigeria, regulators banned the broadcasting of singer Eedris Abdulkareem’s song, “Tell Your Papa”, for being critical of the government. In Uganda, journalists from NTV Uganda and the Daily Monitor newspaper were banned from covering the presidency and parliamentary proceedings in March and October, respectively.
Restrictions on internet access were also frequently imposed. In South Sudan, authorities issued an order to internet service providers to block social media platforms for between 30 and 90 days. In Togo, access to social media platforms, particularly Facebook and TikTok, was disrupted between the end of June and September. In Tanzania, the internet was frequently blocked to silence dissenting voices, including in the aftermath of the October elections.
Elsewhere, including in CAR, Kenya and Sierra Leone, governments passed laws that threatened to further curtail the right to freedom of expression.
Freedom of association
Clampdowns on the right to freedom of association intensified in several countries. In Burkina Faso, Cameroon, CAR and Niger, NGOs, trades unions and other associations were suspended, dissolved or prohibited from carrying out their activities. In Burkina Faso, the International NGO Safety Organisation was suspended for three months. Eight of its staff members were charged with treason and espionage simply for exercising their right to freedom of association. In Cameroon, authorities arbitrarily suspended the activities of the Central African Human Rights Defenders Network and charged its board president and executive director with various offences including “financing terrorism”.
Political organizing was stifled in several countries. In Guinea, three main opposition parties were suspended for three months, while in Mali all political parties were dissolved. In Uganda, security forces cordoned-off and raided the opposition National Unity Party premises in Kampala on four occasions between February and June. Elsewhere, including in Burkina Faso, Ethiopia and Zimbabwe, governments adopted or proposed new laws that raised concerns about further restrictions on the right to freedom of association.
Enforced disappearances
Enforced disappearances remained endemic in the region. In countries including Burkina Faso, Burundi, the DRC, Guinea, Kenya, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Tanzania and Uganda, the practice was widespread. There was a growing trend towards enforced disappearances that were transnational in nature, especially in East Africa. In March, Tanzanian activist Maria Sarungi Tsehai was abducted in Nairobi, Kenya, by masked men in an unmarked vehicle. She was held for several hours during which her abductors choked and intimidated her. She was later dumped in an isolated spot. In May, Ugandan human rights defender Agather Atuhaire and Kenyan activist Boniface Mwangi were arbitrarily arrested by security officers in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, where they had arrived to observe Tundu Lissu’s trial. They were held incommunicado in undisclosed locations and tortured for four days, before being forcibly deported to their respective countries. On 1 October, armed masked men in military uniform abducted Kenyan human rights activists Bob Njagi and Nicholas Oyoo in Kampala, Uganda, after they attended opposition leader Robert Kyagulanyi’s election campaign rally. Their whereabouts remained undisclosed until 8 November when Uganda’s President Museveni confirmed they had been arrested by security forces for being “experts in riots”. They were freed on the day of the president’s announcement and handed over to Kenyan authorities.
Governments must ensure law enforcement complies with international human rights law and standards, including on the use of force; end all forms of harassment against those exercising their rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly. They must refrain from shutting down or interrupting the internet, digital platforms or telecommunication services; ensure respect for media freedom, including by allowing media outlets to operate independently. They must end the use of enforced disappearances, and immediately disclose the fate and/or whereabouts of the disappeared; and create a safe and enabling environment for human rights defenders, civil society and opposition members to function.
Rights of internally displaced people, refugees and migrants
The rights of internally displaced people, refugees and migrants continued to be violated across the region. Between December 2024 and February 2025, more than 600 Eritreans who had sought refuge in Ethiopia were forcibly returned to Eritrea, where the government regarded their asylum claims as evidence of treason. In February, M23 closed several internally displaced people’s camps near Goma in the DRC, further displacing tens of thousands of people. In April, the RSF attacked Zamzam camp for internally displaced people in North Darfur, Sudan, reportedly killing between 300 and 1,500 people, most of them women and children. Also in April, several Cameroonians were expelled from Equatorial Guinea without prior notification to the Cameroonian embassy. In South Africa, xenophobic vigilante group Operation Dudula harassed migrants and denied them entry to hospitals and health clinics, leading to the death in July of a one-year-old baby in Johannesburg.
In several countries, dire living conditions in camps for internally displaced people and refugees were worsened by the US government aid cuts. Meanwhile, Eswatini, Equatorial Guinea, Rwanda, South Sudan and Uganda, among others, considered or entered bilateral arrangements with the US to accept third-country nationals deported from the USA. Under such arrangements Eswatini and South Sudan received 15 and eight third-country nationals, respectively, most of whom remained arbitrarily detained at the end of the year. The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) expressed concern at the lack of transparency surrounding the bilateral arrangements and the lack of adequate protections for deportees in receiving countries.
Governments must protect refugees and migrants from refoulement and mass expulsions; disclose the whereabouts and legal status of third-party nationals received under bilateral arrangements with the USA, guarantee their rights, and ensure that any return is voluntary and rights-compliant.
Discrimination and marginalization
Gender-based violence, including femicide, persisted across the region. An Afrobarometer survey in January showed that 41% of people in Eswatini identified gender-based violence as the most important women’s rights issue in the country. In Kenya, 129 femicide cases were reported between January and March. The government established a working group to coordinate responses to such crimes, although its visibility and impact remained unclear. In Côte d’Ivoire, South Africa, Zambia and elsewhere hundreds of women held protests to demand urgent action to address violence against women and girls. In South Africa, where the protest in November coincided with the G20 Summit in Johannesburg, the government declared gender-based violence levels a national disaster.
Positive responses recorded elsewhere included Burkina Faso’s new Code of Persons and Families that harmonized the legal age of marriage at 18 for both men and women, and strengthened recognition of customary and religious marriages. In Chad, a new law on the prevention of violence against women and girls was adopted. In Sierra Leone, a new child rights law prohibiting early and forced child marriage took effect. The AU Convention on Ending Violence Against Women and Girls was adopted in February, creating a continental legal framework, although sections of civil society were critical of its apparent weak provisions.
Governments continued to weaponize legal systems to target and discriminate against LGBTI people. In Burkina Faso, the new Code of Persons and Families criminalized consensual same-sex sexual relations. In Ghana, lawmakers reintroduced a bill further criminalizing LGBTI people. In South Africa the killing of Muhsin Hendricks, the first openly gay imam and an LGBTI human rights defender, while on his way to officiate two marriages, exemplified the dangers faced by LGBTI people in the country. Zambia’s Constitutional Court dismissed a petition seeking to have Sections 155(a)(c) of the Penal Code, which criminalizes same-sex sexual relations, declared unconstitutional on grounds of discrimination on the basis of sex.
Governments must combat all forms of discrimination and gender-based violence against women and girls and LGBTI people, including addressing root causes, and increasing efforts to eliminate harmful practices. They must repeal anti-LGBTI legislation and refrain from efforts to criminalize same-sex sexual relations.
Right to a healthy environment
Governments and the international community failed to protect people in the region from droughts and floods exacerbated by climate change. In Somalia, droughts undermined the rights to food and water and contributed to internal and cross-border displacement. The government’s efforts to budget for climate adaptation were undermined by inadequate climate financing from high-income and high-emitting countries. In Madagascar, where many continued to be displaced by severe droughts, government climate strategies lacked effective assessments to ascertain the needs of displaced populations. Severe drought also continued to affect large parts of Namibia, adversely affecting crop production and rural livelihoods. Despite these enduring impacts, Namibian authorities ended the drought relief programme for approximately 1.4 million people. In South Africa, some areas of KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern and Western Cape provinces experienced extreme flooding, resulting in loss of lives and destruction of homes, especially in informal settlements. In a positive step, Togo’s president enacted a law to better regulate the effects of climate change.
Elsewhere, environmental degradation continued rapidly. In Congo, the government approved the escalation of oil exploration activities within Conkouati-Douli National Park, ignoring warnings from NGOs that the approval endangered critical habitats and threatened the livelihoods of thousands of park residents. In Zambia, 176 residents of Chambishi town in the Copperbelt province sued mining company Sino-Metals Leach Ltd after the February collapse of its tailings dam, alleging it released toxic waste into the Mwambashi and Kafue rivers, although its Chinese parent company stated the claim is “clearly unfounded”. According to the lawsuit, approximately 300,000 households that made their living from fishing were affected, while the government identified only 449 affected households.
Governments must take immediate measures to protect their populations from the impacts of climate change and strengthen their preparedness for extreme weather events, including by seeking international assistance and climate finance from higher income countries, especially those most responsible for climate change, and by refraining from building new fossil fuel infrastructure.
Right to truth, justice and reparation
Victims and survivors of gross human rights violations and crimes under international law continued to be denied the right to truth, justice and reparation. In the DRC, victims of the six-day war in Kisangani in June 2000 were still waiting for justice. In Eswatini, there was no progress in the investigation into the January 2023 killing of human rights lawyer Thulani Maseko.
Justice and accountability efforts were often undermined by authorities. In March, former Guinean head of state Moussa Dadis Camara, convicted of crimes against humanity in 2024, received a presidential pardon, jeopardizing access to justice for victims of the 2009 Conakry stadium massacre. In September, Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger announced their intention to withdraw from the ICC. Meanwhile, the process to establish the AU-backed Hybrid Court for South Sudan remained stalled.
A few positive developments were recorded. In June, the Special Criminal Court in CAR convicted six former members of the Popular Front for the Renaissance of the Central African Republic armed group for crimes against humanity and war crimes. However, four of them were tried in their absence. In July, the ICC sentenced former Anti-Balaka leaders Alfred Yékatom and Patrice-Edouard Ngaïssona to 15 and 12 years’ imprisonment, respectively, for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in 2013 and 2014 in CAR. In September, in connection with Sudan, the FFM published its second report. This was followed in October by the publication of the first report of the ACHPR’s Joint Fact-Finding Mission on the Situation in Sudan. Also in October, the ICC convicted Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman, also known as “Ali Kushayb”, a principal leader of the Janjaweed militia, of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Darfur between August 2003 and March 2004. In the same month the ACHPR found the DRC accountable for widespread acts of sexual violence, including rape, committed in 2011 by members of government forces against more than 50 women in Fizi territory, South Kivu.
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 or grave human rights violations and abuses, bringing suspected perpetrators to justice and ensuring victims’ access to an effective remedy.