Daily Brief Audio Series
Senegal’s government hit the country with two shocks on Monday.
First, they shut down mobile internet services in much of the country. Then, they announced the dissolution of a key opposition party, Patriotes africains du Sénégal pour le travail, l'éthique et la fraternité (Patriots of Senegal for Work, Ethics, and Fraternity, or PASTEF).
These events are especially alarming in the context of increasing instability in West Africa, with multiple military coups in the region recently. Senegal has also been, in many eyes, “long considered a bastion of democracy and a regional leader in diplomacy.”
The government’s moves against the opposition party did not come out of the blue. It’s been building for some time.
On June 1, a court sentenced PASTEF leader Ousman Sonko to two years in jail for “corrupting youth.” This undermined his chances to run in next year’s presidential election, where he could have been expected to do well, given his third-place showing in 2019 and his mobilization of younger voters.
Obviously, PASTEF supporters saw the legal actions as politically motivated. Protests broke out in the capital Dakar, and violence led to at least 16 deaths, including two members of the security forces. Scores of others were wounded. Some 500 people across Senegal were arrested.
Then, last week, Sonko, who hadn’t begun serving his first sentence yet, was arrested on numerous new charges. These included fomenting insurrection, undermining state security, creating serious political unrest, and criminal association.
On Sunday, Sonko announced on social media that he had begun a hunger strike in custody and called on Senegalese citizens “to resist.”
Hundreds of people heeded that call in Dakar and in the southern city of Ziguinchor, on Monday, to protest Sonko’s arrest and detention. Senegal’s interior minister announced that two people died during protests in Ziguinchor but did not provide any details.
And that’s when the government dissolved PASTEF and restricted internet access.
PASTEF has condemned its dissolution as “anti-democratic,” and that’s a fair conclusion to draw here. Senegalese authorities should immediately reinstate the party.
They should also restore internet services, recognizing people’s right to freedom of information and to express their views.
In the words of the prominent Senegalese human rights activist, Alioune Tine, the government of Senegal must respect its human rights obligations and “prioritize dialogue with the opposition over the use of indiscriminate repression that leads to violence and instability.”
Sea levels are rising, and the people of Gardi Sugdub know disaster looms.
The tiny, low-lying island off the north coast of Panama doesn’t stand a chance against the steamroller of climate change. The nearly 1,300 people crowded onto to it will have to move.
And the community wants to move. In fact, they began planning to relocate to the mainland in 2010. But no one has yet been able to leave the sinking island, because government pledges of support for the move keep falling through. The relocation date gets pushed forward, over and over.
The government’s unfulfilled promises for the new location include a partly constructed hospital – a project now abandoned – and a new school building that’s taking forever to complete. People from the community ask about the delays, but authorities fail to provide full explanations.
Of course, climate change doesn’t wait for governments, and people cannot live on promises. With the relocation from Gardi Sugdub stalled, the community is in limbo, with the sea rising relentlessly around them. Floods are already making life harder for the island’s residents, impacting health, education, and culture.
And Gardi Sugdub, home to Guna Indigenous people for over a century, is not alone. In Panama, 38 communities may need to be relocated because of overcrowding and the rising sea level. Hundreds of communities around the world find themselves in a similar position – or soon will.
It’s difficult not to see Gardi Sugdub as a metaphor for humanity’s failure in the face of climate change. People look around and see the impacts: more frequent higher temperatures and other extreme events, floods, droughts, forest fires, and more. They ask governments to do something and governments reply with delays and broken promises rather than action.
But being a metaphor or a warning for the rest of the world doesn’t help the people on Gardi Sugdub. They need authorities in Panama to follow through, so they can get off the island with dignity and rebuild their lives on safer ground.
Stop Tiptoeing around Terror in Darfur, Daily Brief July 31, 2023
Daily Brief, 31 July, 2023.
Three months into the renewed conflict in Darfur, there one glaring question: where the hell is the United Nations Security Council?
After three months of increasing attacks against civilians and horrific atrocities on the ground – including mass killings, sexual violence, and even the destruction of entire towns – we’ve yet to see anything concrete from the global body charged with peace and security.
The Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a notoriously abusive independent military group, and its allied militias, continue to slaughter and terrorize non-Arab communities in West Darfur. Looting and arson go hand-in-hand with killing and rape. They attack critical civilian infrastructure, like hospitals, and markets.
The assaults and ongoing violence have displaced hundreds of thousands of people throughout the region since April, but the RSF is also attacking the sites where those who had been displaced in previous attacks gathered in hope of finding safety. More than 320,000 people have fled across the border to Chad.
The UN Security Council meanwhile has been tiptoeing around the issue. Sudan and Darfur have technically been on the agenda, but nothing’s come of it apart from this empty formality that helps no one.
Part of the reason has been diplomatic pushback from the three African members of the Security Council – what’s sometimes called the “A3” and is currently comprised of Gabon, Ghana, and Mozambique. They shunned proactive Security Council involvement, preferring to let regional and bilateral efforts to solve the crisis take precedence.
This kind of diplomatic effort is often called, “African solutions for African problems,” and when it works, great. No need to involve global bodies if regional efforts can get results and save lives.
But it’s been three months, and those regional efforts have not stemmed the slaughter. Ethnic attacks continue in Darfur. Atrocities keep mounting.
This is a matter of global, humanity-wide concern, and the body charged with international peace and security – the UN Security Council – needs to act.
Tomorrow, the rotating presidency of the UN Security Council falls to the United States, which will have the entire month of August to try to make things happen. The people of Darfur need to see them shift the Council’s direction.
There are some encouraging signs. Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the US Ambassador to the UN and a member of President Biden’s cabinet, has not been shy in talking about mass atrocity crimes unfolding in Darfur. Just days ago, she said: “In Sudan, we are beginning to see reports use the dreaded word genocide to describe the situation in Darfur.”
And in a media interview last week, she said: “What is happening in Sudan should be on the agenda of the Security Council.”
But, as we’ve seen, it’s not just about keeping the issue on the agenda. It’s about taking actual steps to address the gravity of the issue. Specifically, these are some of the concrete actions we need to see:
First, the UN Security Council should expand the current Darfur-specific arms embargo to cover the whole of Sudan and commit to publicly call out countries not respecting the existing arms embargo on Darfur.
Second, the Council should impose targeted sanctions against those individuals most responsible for atrocities in Darfur.
Third, the Council should involve the UN’s expert on conflict-related sexual violence to report to the Council and pave the way for sanctions against commanders responsible.
Fourth, they should invite atrocity survivors from Darfur to come to New York and address the Council personally.
Fifth, they should consider how to step up civilian protection, starting by asking the UN Secretary General to give the Security Council a report with options on what the UN could do to protect civilians, as soon as possible.
These five steps would be a start to the world treating the deepening crisis in Darfur with the seriousness it demands.
Special note: Starting tomorrow, we will be featuring short dispatches and notes from our researchers who have been in Chad, interviewing victims of atrocities in Darfur.
With the coup in Niger just barely two days old, we’re at a familiar stage with such situations internationally.
There’s condemnation from all the key bodies: the African Union, the Economic Community of West African States, and the United Nations. And there are still key diplomatic players – in this case, for example, France – who want to talk about “an attempted coup” to avoid sounding like it’s a done deal.
It’s a bit of a diplomatic dance that mixes outrage with hope. Everyone wants to signal that coups are unacceptable and it’s not too late for the coup leaders to change their minds. But, of course, everyone also realizes that, with each passing hour, this hope fades.
On Wednesday, Niger army officers of the self-proclaimed National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland (Conseil National pour la sauveguarde de la patrie, CNSP) announced on national television the overthrow of the government of President Mohamed Bazoum.
Speaking on behalf of the coup leaders, major-colonel Amadou Abdramane proclaimed that the constitution had been dissolved, all institutions suspended, and the nation’s borders closed. He said his forces had toppled Bazoum because of the deteriorating security situation, as well as “poor economic and social governance.”
Many then took to the streets in support of Bazoum, who was elected president in 2021 in Niger’s first democratic transition since it gained independence from French colonial rule in 1960. Soldiers supporting the coup fired warning shots to disperse them.
Yesterday several hundred people gathered in front of the National Assembly to show support for the coup leaders, calling for the departure of French troops and for the intervention of Russia.
This is the fourth coup in Niger’s history since 1960, and the latest in a string of recent military takeovers in the Sahel region and West Africa. Since 2020, there have been four military coups in neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso. In 2021, military coups also occurred in Chad, Guinea, and Sudan.
Niger can ill afford further unrest and insecurity. The country already suffers from attacks by armed Islamist groups, as well as floods and droughts due to climate change. Niger is in the midst of a complex humanitarian crisis, with 4.3 million people, about 17 percent of the population, requiring humanitarian aid.
While the international community condemns the coup and pushes for its reversal, the people of Niger have to deal with the situation as it is on the ground. And, as everywhere, whoever’s in charge on the ground is who’s responsible for protecting people from harm. That means respecting human rights.
Rabia Djibo Magagi, a prominent human rights defender in Niger, told Human Rights Watch what she’s hoping for right now:
“The unrest generated by the coup should not create a void in the protection of fundamental rights and freedoms. The new military authorities should ensure that the human rights of all Nigeriens are upheld.”
About the only good thing that can be said about authoritarian regimes is they make no secret of their basic nature. Even when they try to throw on the trappings of democracy, they are almost always so bad at it, it fools no one.
The latest example comes from Cambodia, where this week we’re seeing that classic authoritarian favorite: transferring power from father to son.
After almost four decades in power, Prime Minister Hun Sen is passing the torch to his eldest son, Hun Manet. It’s as obvious as it was unsurprising – this transition has been in the works for years.
The announcement came a few days after the ruling Cambodian People’s Party took all parliamentary seats in a national show they called an “election.” That word has to be in quotation marks, because it wasn’t really a contest. There was no serious competition allowed. Hun Sen was boxing alone in the ring.
In the run up to this “election,” Hun Sen used every repressive tool at his disposal to rid Cambodia of all political opposition. The government harassed and even arrested members and supporters from the only serious possible competitor, the Candlelight Party.
We’ve seen it all before. In the 2018 “election,” Cambodia’s politicized courts simply dissolved the main opposition party ahead of time.
Uncompetitive elections and the handing of power from farther to son – the most textbook of authoritarian moves – would be almost comically cliché, laughable even, if the reality in the country weren’t so tragic.
People in Cambodia suffer under draconian laws, and authorities use arbitrary arrests, government-controlled judicial harassment, and violence to silence dissent. Politically motivated mass trials have been held for opposition members and human rights defenders. Cambodia still holds more than 50 political prisoners.
Its authoritarianism is as brutal as it is obvious.