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Amnesty International Report 2017/18
In the Lake Chad basin region, Boko Haram committed war crimes on a large scale. Boko
Haram attacks targeted civilians, caused deaths and led to an increase in displacement of
civilians. Resurgent attacks in Cameroon and Nigeria left hundreds of civilians dead. While 82
of the abducted schoolgirls from Chibok, northeast Nigeria, were released in May, thousands
of abducted women, girls and young men were unaccounted for and faced horrific abuses,
including rape. Across northeast Nigeria, 1.7 million people were displaced, bringing many to
the brink of starvation.
In Mali, attacks by armed groups on civilians and peacekeepers spread from the north to the
centre, and a state of emergency was extended in October for another year.
In October, al-Shabaab carried out the deadliest attack against civilians in recent times in
Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu; it left over 512 people dead.
TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT
Torture and other ill-treatment was reported in several countries including Burkina Faso,
Cameroon, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Mauritania, Nigeria and Sudan.
Cameroon’s security forces perpetrated torture against people suspected – often without
evidence – of supporting Boko Haram; these violations amounted to war crimes and the
crimes were carried out with impunity.
In Ethiopia, detainees accused of terrorism repeatedly complained to the courts that police
tortured and ill-treated them during interrogations. Although, in some cases, judges ordered
the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission to investigate the allegations, the investigations failed
to adhere to international human rights standards.
On the positive side, the Anti-Torture Bill – intended to prohibit and criminalize the use of
torture – was signed into law in Nigeria in December.
PEOPLE ON THE MOVE
Protracted conflicts, along with recurring humanitarian crises and persistent human rights
violations, forced millions to flee their homes in search of protection. Refugees and migrants
faced widespread abuses and violations. Millions of refugees hosted by African countries were
inadequately supported by the international community.
The ongoing conflict and drought in Somalia left half the country’s population in need of
humanitarian assistance, according to UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency. Over a million people
were internally displaced by conflict and drought during the year – adding to 1.1 million
internally displaced people living in deplorable conditions in unsafe informal settlements.
In Kenya, over 285,000 refugees and asylum-seekers from Somalia remained in urgent need
of protection. In February, a High Court ruling blocked the Kenyan government’s unilateral
decision to shut Dadaab refugee camp, which – in violation of international law – had put more
than 260,000 Somali refugees at risk of forcible return. Although Dadaab remained open, the
Kenyan government continued to refuse to register new arrivals from Somalia. Over 74,000
refugees were repatriated from Dadaab to Somalia between December 2014 and November
2017 under the voluntary repatriation framework. The repatriations took place despite ongoing
concerns about the “voluntary” nature of returns and despite concerns that the conditions to
ensure returns in safety and dignity were not yet in place in Somalia, due to ongoing conflict
and severe drought.
Hundreds of thousands of people from CAR sought refuge from conflict in neighbouring
countries or were internally displaced, living in makeshift camps.
Military operations and the conflict with Boko Haram in the Lake Chad basin region forced
millions from their homes. In Nigeria, at least 1.7 million were internally displaced in the
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northeastern states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa. UNHCR said that 5.2 million people in the
northeast were in urgent need of food assistance and 450,000 children under five were in
urgent need of nutrition. In Chad, over 408,000 refugees from CAR, DRC, Nigeria and Sudan
lived in dire conditions in refugee camps.
Botswana denied refugees freedom of movement, the right to work and local integration;
asylum-seekers faced lengthy refugee status determination procedures and detention.
Thousands continued to flee Eritrea, where the human rights situation and the imposition of
indefinite military national service created major difficulties for many. They faced serious
abuses in transit and in some destination countries, and many were subjected to arbitrary
detention, abduction, sexual abuse and ill-treatment on their way to Europe. In August, Sudan
forcibly returned more than 100 refugees to Eritrea, where they were at risk of serious human
rights violations, in violation of international law.
In South Sudan, around 340,000 fled an escalation of the fighting in the Equatoria region,
which led to atrocities and starvation between January and October. Mainly government – but
also opposition – forces in the southern region committed crimes under international law and
other serious violations and abuses, including war crimes, against civilians. More than 3.9
million people − approximately one third of the population − had been displaced since the
beginning of the conflict in December 2013.
Other states did little to help neighbouring countries hosting more than 2 million refugees
from South Sudan. Uganda hosted over 1 million refugees, mostly children, and encountered
difficulties in implementing its progressive and widely respected refugee policy, due to chronic
underfunding by the international community. Consequently, the Ugandan government,
UNHCR and NGOs struggled to meet refugees’ basic needs.
IMPUNITY
Failure to ensure justice, redress and the holding of suspected perpetrators to account
remained a key driver of human rights violations and abuses in a wide range of contexts and
countries.
In CAR, some progress was made towards operationalizing the Special Criminal Court, which
was established to try individuals suspected of serious human rights violations and crimes
under international law committed during the country’s 14-year conflict. The Court’s Special
Prosecutor took office in May, but the Court was not yet operational and impunity remained the
norm.
In South Sudan, three transitional justice bodies provided for in the 2015 peace agreement
had still not been established. In July, a joint roadmap for the establishment of the Hybrid
Court for South Sudan was agreed between the African Union (AU) Commission and the
government; discussions continued on the instruments for the establishment of the Court, but
nothing was formally adopted.
In Nigeria – amid concerns about independence and impartiality – a Special Board of Inquiry,
established by the army to investigate allegations of gross human rights violations, cleared
senior military officers of crimes under international law. Its report was not made public. In
August, the acting President set up a presidential investigation panel to probe allegations of
human rights violations carried out by the military; the panel held public hearings between
September and November but there was no outcome by the end of the year. Meanwhile, the
Nigerian authorities held mass secret trials for Boko Haram suspects; 50 defendants were
sentenced to various terms of imprisonment in a trial that took place over four days.
In DRC, the killing of two UN experts and the disappearance of their Congolese interpreter
and three of their drivers, in Kasaï Central Province in March, illustrated the urgent need to
end violence in the region. The Congolese authorities’ investigation was not transparent or