Human Rights Watch - The African Mirror

Feb

20

2026

From hiding, Bobi Wine takes Uganda’s crisis to the world – and indicts the West

NEWS

HE spoke from an undisclosed location, hunted by his own country's military. Yet when Ugandan opposition leader Robert Kyagulanyi - known globally as Bobi Wine - addressed the 18th Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy this week, his message reached far beyond the hall of delegates. It was a dual indictment: of Yoweri Museveni's regime, and of the Western governments that have, in Wine's telling, long furnished it with political cover and financial oxygen. The address, delivered via live video broadcast, was both a political intervention and a stark demonstration of Uganda's crisis. That one of Africa's most prominent…

Jan

30

2026

By OWN CORRESPONDENT

Uganda opposition leaders vanished as military besieges rival’s home

NEWS

TWO senior Ugandan opposition leaders have been forcibly disappeared, and the main challenger to President Yoweri Museveni remains in hiding after soldiers stormed his home and assaulted his wife, Human Rights Watch has reported. The dramatic escalation comes less than two weeks after Museveni claimed victory in presidential elections on January 15, extending his 40-year grip on power to a seventh term. Military forces have effectively besieged the residence of opposition leader Robert Kyagulanyi, known as Bobi Wine, who finished as Museveni's closest rival. Armed soldiers raided the compound twice, cutting electricity, disabling security cameras, and on January 23, allegedly…

Jan

19

2026

By The African Mirror

Mass killings in Iran: Security forces open fire on protesters as death toll reaches thousands

WORLD

IRANIAN security forces have massacred thousands of protesters across the country in a coordinated crackdown following nationwide demonstrations that erupted earlier this month, according to a new investigation by Human Rights Watch. Videos verified by the human rights organisation show at least 400 bodies piled in and around a morgue south of Tehran, with witnesses describing scenes of families desperately searching through body bags for missing loved ones. The footage, along with testimony from survivors and medical personnel, points to what researchers are calling an unprecedented wave of state violence. "The mass killings by Iranian security forces since January 8…

Jan

15

2026

By OWN CORRESPONDENT

Saudi Arabia executes record 356 people in 2025, surpassing previous year’s high

WORLD

SAUDI Arabia executed at least 356 people in 2025, marking the highest number of executions in a single year since monitoring began and breaking the record set just one year earlier, Human Rights Watch has reported. The 2025 total surpasses the 345 executions recorded in 2024, representing the second consecutive year Saudi authorities have set a new execution record. Foreign nationals convicted of nonlethal drug offences accounted for the majority of executions, according to data compiled by Reprieve and the European Saudi Organisation for Human Rights. Of the 356 executed, 240 had been convicted of drug-related offences, with 188 of…

Jan

10

2026

By The African Mirror

Iran protests: At least 28 killed in security crackdown

WORLD

IRANIAN security forces have killed at least 28 protesters and bystanders in a deadly crackdown on nationwide demonstrations that began last week, according to human rights organisations. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said Friday that security forces unlawfully used firearms, metal pellets, tear gas and beatings to disperse largely peaceful protests that erupted on December 28 following a sharp currency collapse. The deaths occurred between December 31 and January 3 across 13 cities in eight provinces, with the deadliest violence concentrated in areas home to ethnic minorities. At least eight people were killed in Lorestan province and five in…

Dec

03

2025

By OWN CORRESPONDENT

Tunisia: Opposition leader arrested hours after 45-year sentences to other leaders

NEWS

TUNISIAN police arrested prominent opposition figure Chaima Issa during a Saturday protest in the capital, just one day after an appeals court delivered prison sentences of up to 45 years to a group of opposition leaders, businessmen, and lawyers in what human rights observers have condemned as a politically motivated show trial. The dramatic arrest—which Issa herself predicted moments before police detained her—crystallises the central role Tunisia's criminal justice system now plays in President Kais Saied's systematic suppression of political opposition, transforming what was once the Arab Spring's sole democratic success story into an increasingly authoritarian state lurching from one…

Nov

21

2025

By OWN CORRESPONDENT

Human Rights Watch accuses Israel of war crimes in mass West Bank expulsions

WORLD

HUMAN Rights Watch has accused Israel of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity by forcibly expelling 32,000 Palestinians from three West Bank refugee camps earlier this year and barring them from returning to their demolished homes. In a 105-page report, the international rights organisation detailed what it called "ethnic cleansing" carried out by Israeli forces in coordinated raids on the Jenin, Tulkarem, and Nur Shams refugee camps between January and February 2025, while global attention remained focused on the Gaza ceasefire. The report documents "Operation Iron Wall," which began January 21 with Israeli forces storming Jenin camp using Apache…

Aug

21

2025

By The African Mirror

Peace hopes for eastern DRC shattered by mass killings during ceasefire talks

NEWS

THE most promising international peace initiative for eastern Democratic Republic of Congo in decades has been dealt a devastating blow following revelations that Rwanda-backed M23 rebels executed over 140 civilians during the same period that diplomats celebrated breakthrough agreements in Washington and Doha. Human Rights Watch (HRW) has disclosed that the M23 armed group carried out systematic killings of mostly ethnic Hutu civilians between July 10-30 in at least 14 villages near Virunga National Park — even as negotiators were finalising what was hailed as a historic ceasefire agreement signed in Qatar on July 19. The massacre represents one of…

Dec

18

2024

By The African Mirror

Voices of resilience: Sudan’s survivors speak out

NEWS

IN the aftermath of unimaginable violence, the women of Sudan's South Kordofan state have shown extraordinary courage. Their stories, meticulously documented by Human Rights Watch, reveal not just the depths of human cruelty, but the profound strength of survival. Take Hania's experience. At 18 and three months pregnant, she was abducted by Rapid Support Forces (RSF) fighters from her home in Fayu. For three months, she was held captive at a military base, repeatedly raped and beaten. "My head is full of bad thoughts," she says. "I became absent-minded. I cannot function normally, sometimes I think I lost my mind."…

Dec

18

2024

By The African Mirror

Syria: Mass grave in Damascus should be protected, investigated

WORLD

THE state of a mass grave in Damascus and statements by people living in the surrounding area suggest that the area is a mass crime scene and may have been the site of other summary executions, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch visited the site in the southern Damascus neighbourhood of Tadamon on December 11 and 12, 2024, finding scores of human remains both at the location of an April 2013 massacre and strewn throughout the surrounding neighbourhood. Transitional Syrian authorities should take steps to urgently secure and preserve physical evidence across the country of grave international crimes…