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Toxic mine waste in Zambia’s Kabwe region. Photo: 2024 Juliane Kippenberg/Human Rights Watch.

South African company accused of fuelling toxic lead crisis in Zambia

Human Rights Watch has found that the lead-contaminated waste in Kabwe, Zambia, puts residents health at risk

Israeli attacks continue in Gaza. Photo: Ahmed Zaqout/Anadolu/Getty Images

Israeli propaganda yet again poses as fact

Israel is using water as a weapon of war in Gaza

The AU’s theme for 2025 is Justice for Africans and People of African Descent Through Reparations (Johannes Eisele/AFP)

An open letter to African Union Commission chairperson candidates

The AU’s theme for 2025 is Justice for Africans and People of African Descent Through Reparations

Smoke rises as clashes in Khartoum between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces reached boiling point in 2023.(Photo by Mahmoud Hjaj/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

‘Rebels’ should give up hope of ruling Sudan, says RSF adviser

US peace talks to end the 16-month war in the country have yielded no concrete results

Entrenched: The president of Cameroon, Paul Biya.  (Lintao Zhang/Reuters)

Cameroon’s Biya clamps down as criticism of him intensifies

Over the past few months, many government critics, including opposition leaders and journalists, have been jailed or forced into exile

Fleeing for their lives: Tayyib Mahmoud and his family from Al Fashir in Darfur in 2021 going on a bus that will take them to safety in Egypt.

Sudan civil war fuels sexual violence and humanitarian crisis

Both sides are accused of war crimes, and millions of people have been displaced and face famine in 14 areas of civil war in the country

Media crackdown in Burkina Faso intensifies

More foreign news outlets are gagged over massacre reports accusing soldiers of killing at least 223 people in revenge attacks in February

A DR Congo supporter reacts during the Africa Cup of Nations 2024 group F football match between DR Congo and Zambia at Stade Laurent Pokou in San Pedro on January 17, 2024. (Photo by SIA KAMBOU / AFP)

Total football, total sportswashing

The beautiful game arrives at the perfect time to scrub the mud off Afcon’s lead sponsor

A supporter of Zimbabwe’s ruling party, Zanu-PF, holds up an election campaign poster during a rally addressed by President Emmerson Mnangagwa. (Jekesai Njikizana/Getty Images)

Human Rights Watch urges Africa to be vigilant during elections

South Africa, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Angola, Zambia, Malawi and Eswatini were singled out as countries of crucial concern

Surveillance technology is increasingly being used to monitor civilians.

SA, International Law and stopping the coming tragedy

We cannot be like the West and turn our back on the Palestinian people and the question of their freedom

Supporters of incumbent President Paul Kagame carry a large photograph of him during the campaign’s closing rally in Kigali, on August 2, 2017. (Marco Longari/AFP)

Human rights report details onslaught on Rwandan dissidents

It says the international community has failed to recognise and stem the persecution of Rwandan refugees and critics of the Kagame regime

Rocky road: Ethiopians seeking political asylum, or just a better life, in Gulf states, walk along a highway in Yemen to cross into Saudi Arabia on 23 August. Photo: Mohammed Hamoud/Getty Images

Saudis use ‘sportswashing’ to paint over alleged killings

The government denies any wrongdoing, describing the allegations of the murder of Africans on the country’s borders as unfounded

Wildlife protection activist Adams Cassinga holds the skull of a buffalo, indicating the existence of this species in the past in the Bombo Lumene protected area near Kinshasa © Conserv Congo
Video

DRC stockpiles fuel illegal wildlife trade

Ivory and other wild contraband seized by authorities is being returned to the black market in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

(Graphic: John McCann/M&G)

Online racism rampant in China

Given its undeniable control over the internet, does the state have a responsibility to halt the hatred?

Human Rights Watch says more than a dozen people have been killed since January 2023. (Getty Images)

Human Rights Watch accuses Angolan police of killings

Although the government has attempted to improve law enforcement, criminal prosecutions against officers who commit violations remain rare

Disputed: The elections will be marred by new repressive laws and intimidation, as well as ID numbers belonging to dead people, and names and addresses that don’t match. Photo: Zinyange Auntony/Getty Images

Ghost voters haunt Zimbabwe elections

An analysis of the voters’ roll indicates that the elections on 23 August for the president and legislature will not be free and fair

Twitter headquarters in San Francisco, California, US. Twitter  said it ended a policy designed to suppress false or misleading information about Covid-19, part of Elon Musk’s polarising mission to remake the social network as a place for unmoderated speech.  (David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Prominent Twitter users ticked off over $8 fee lose verification

Well-known South Africans, including Trevor Noah, Siya Kolisi and John Steenhuisen, have lost their check mark as Elon Musk pushes for Twitter Blue

Attacks against women and children included xenophobic violence, which many foreign nationals faced in South Africa

Gender violence, xenophobia, corruption: South Africa’s human rights problems continue in 2023

Report says crime statistics at the end of August reflected limited improvement on protecting women’s rights

Abuses: After Central African Republic President Faustin-Archange Touadéra (centre) asked for help in fighting militias, private Russian paramilitary contractors were sent to the CAR. Photo: Barbara Debout/AFP

Human Rights Watch: Russian mercenaries killing civilians in Central African Republic

The NGO has noted that paramilitary forces have executed, tortured, and beaten civilians since 2019

The Rwanda Investigation Bureau in October urged citizens to be wary of social media commentators seeking to “undermine national security”, warning of arrests. (Reuters)

‘Waiting for jail’: Rwandan YouTuber defies personal risks

While Kagame has won praise for bringing stability and economic growth to Rwanda, he has also come under fire for cracking down on political freedoms.