crackdown - The African Mirror

Feb

2024

Ghana parliament passes stringent anti-LGBTQ law

GHANA'S parliament passed legislation that intensifies a crackdown on the rights of LGBTQ people and those promoting lesbian, gay or other non-conventional sexual or gender identities in the West African country. Gay sex was already punishable by up to three years in prison. The bill now also imposes a prison sentence of up to five years for the "wilful promotion, sponsorship, or support of LGBTQ+ activities". The bill, one of the harshest of its kind in Africa, still needs presidential assent to come into force. President Nana Akufo-Addo has not confirmed if he will sign the bill into law. A…

Jan

2024

By The African Mirror

Burundi’s president says gay people should be stoned

NEWS

BURUNDI'S President Evariste Ndayishimiye has called on citizens to stone gay people, escalating a crackdown on sexual minorities in a country where LGBT people already face social ostracism and jail terms of up to two years if convicted of same-sex offences. "If you want to attract a curse to the country, accept homosexuality," Ndayishimiye said in a question and answer session with journalists and the public held in Burundi's east on Friday. "I even think that these people, if we find them in Burundi, it is better to lead them to a stadium and stone them. And that cannot be…

Mar

2023

By The African Mirror

African migrants suffer under crackdown in Tunisia

NEWS

ANGUS MCDOWALL SINCE Tunisia's president announced a crackdown on illegal immigration last week using language the African Union denounced as racialised, Malian construction worker Mohamed Kony has been evicted from his apartment and sacked from his job. Unemployed, homeless and without legal residency, he now fears he will face the fate of several of his friends who have been attacked on the street. "I am confused and worried," said Kony, 32, who has lived in Tunis for five years and appeared well-liked in his neighbourhood, where Tunisian residents said they enjoyed his cheerful demeanour and often employed him for small…

Feb

2023

By The African Mirror

Tunisia detains more dissidents amid growing crackdown

NEWS

TUNISIAN police detained two prominent dissidents and surrounded the home of a third, part of an escalating crackdown on critics of President Kais Saied, who has labelled his opponents traitors and criminals. The arrests, along with others this month, have targeted some of Saied's most important critics along with other politicians, judges and media figures. Issam Chebbi, head of the Republican Party, was detained near a shopping centre while he was out with his wife, his family and lawyers told Reuters. Police later searched his home. Chaima Issa, an activist who took part in the 2011 revolution, was detained after…

Feb

2023

By The African Mirror

Analysis: Tunisia arrests raise opposition fears of wider crackdown

SPECIAL FEATURES: ANALYSIS

ANGUS MCDOWALL and TAREK AMARA COORDINATED arrests of political and media figures represent a new phase in Tunisian President Kais Saied's struggle with a fragmented but emboldened opposition, raising fears of a wider campaign to quell dissent. Since Saied shut down parliament 18 months ago, moving to rule by decree before rewriting the constitution, security forces had moved only sporadically against opponents who accuse him of an undemocratic coup. Saied has denied a coup, saying his actions were legal and necessary to save Tunisia from chaos. He promised to uphold the rights and freedoms won in the 2011 revolution that…

Sep

2020

By The African Mirror

British police raid drug gangs as COVID-19 fuels child trafficking fears

WORLD

KIERAN GUILBERT MORE than 1,000 people were arrested and dozens of suspected victims of modern slavery identified in a crackdown on the drug trade in Britain, police said, as concerns grow about a rise in child trafficking during the coronavirus pandemic. Police said 69 possible trafficking victims were referred to government bodies for support following a series of raids this month to disrupt the so-called County Lines drug trade, by which criminal gangs move drugs from cities into rural areas. The operation was the biggest of its kind to-date and led to the seizure of more than 1 million pounds…