Burkina Faso suspends BBC, VOA radio broadcasts over killings coverage
Reuters Burkina Faso has suspended the radio broadcasts of BBC Africa and the US-funded Voice of America (VOA) for two weeks over their coverage of a Human Rights Watch report accusing the army of extrajudicial killings, authorities said late on Thursday. In the report based on its own investigation, the watchdog said that the West […]
Burkina Faso army executed over 220 villagers in February, HRW says
Dakar, Senegal Reuters Burkina Faso’s military in February summarily executed about 223 villagers, including at least 56 children, as part of a campaign against civilians accused of collaborating with jihadist militants, Human Rights Watch said on Thursday. The watchdog made the assertions in a report based on its own investigation into the reported execution of […]
After months in jail, Senegalese family vows to vote out ruling party
Dakar, Senegal Reuters When Aramata Djiba was arrested and taken with her four-month-old baby to a maximum security prison in Senegal’s capital Dakar, she said she felt it was the “end of the world”. “I had no hope…I cried for a week,” said the 29-year-old kindergarten teacher. She said she shared a cell, and a […]
North Korean defectors seek more UN monitoring of abuses
Geneva, Switzerland Reuters North Koreans defectors spoke at a UN event in Geneva on Friday to expose human rights violations in a country one of them described as “hell” and to advocate for a strengthened UN mandate to investigate and document them. The defectors came to the UN in Geneva where diplomats say the UN […]
Silencing dissent: Belarus cracks down on clergy who supported protests of its authoritarian leader
YURAS KARMANAU, of Associated Press, reports on the increasing crackdown on clergy and religious organisations who are critical of the government of President Alexander Lukashenko…
More than 8,000 killed during 2022 Mariupol siege – Human Rights Watch
Geneva, Switzerland Reuters At least 8,000 people were killed by fighting or war-related causes in Russia’s months-long conquest of Mariupol, one of the biggest battles of the nearly two-year war between Russia and Ukraine, according to Human Rights Watch. Mariupol became a byword for horror during a nearly three-month-long Russian siege for control of the […]
UN urges measures to stop arms trafficking fueling Haiti’s gang wars
Reuters The head of the United Nation’s drugs and crime office on Thursday warned of a “vicious cycle” of arms trafficking to increasingly powerful Haitian gangs, fueling an internal conflict and worsening violence across the Caribbean. “It’s more important than ever to take every measure possible to prevent illicit flows,” the UNODC’s executive director, Ghada […]
Burkina Faso junta’s conscription of critics rattles civil society and unions
Reuters Burkina Faso’s military junta is abusing an emergency law to conscript perceived dissidents and critics to join a deadly fight against militants linked to al-Qaeda and Islamic State, warned lawyers, journalists and watchdog Human Rights Watch this week. In a series of statements, civil society groups and unions for journalists and lawyers accused the […]
Rights groups appeal for justice over 2013 Egypt sit-in killings
Cairo, EgyptReuters Rights groups called on Monday for accountability over the deaths of hundreds of people killed in a single day 10 years ago when Egyptian security forces dispersed a protest against the ouster of the country’s first democratically elected president. The clearing of the Rabaa al-Adawiya sit-in in Cairo on 14th August, 2013 marked […]
The Long Read: In Ukraine, land mines left by Russian forces pose a deadly threat
GERRY DOYLE, HAN HUANG and JACKIE GU, of Reuters, investigate…