Sub Saharan Africa
Credit: AFP / A protestor gestures next to a burning barricade during a Cost of Living demonstration in Kenya, 2023
Our Members in Sub-Saharan Africa:
In Focus:
Nigeria
The ECOWAS Court in Abuja, Nigeria, has ruled that psychological distress from witnessing the Lekki Tollgate massacre amounted to torture, ordering compensation for three survivors based on IFEG’s medico-legal evidence.
On 10 July 2024, the Community Court of Justice of ECOWAS in Abuja ruled that psychological distress and fear experienced by witnesses to the Lekki Tollgate massacre in Lagos amounted to torture, holding the Nigerian government responsible.
The case was supported by medico-legal reports produced by IFEG in collaboration with Nigerian NGO Gavel, documenting the physical and psychological impacts on three petitioners. Although the survivors were not physically harmed, the Court recognised the psychological terror and subsequent harassment they endured, which led to isolation and devastation of their social and familial networks.
The ruling marked a strategic victory for survivors, as the Court ordered Nigeria to pay each of the three applicants ten million Nigerian Naira (about EUR6,000), including compensation for the violation of the prohibition of torture, which is about twice the average annual income in the country.
Read more on the Nigeria Country Page.
In Nigeria, IFEG cooperated with Nigerian NGO, Gavel, in documenting the physical and psychological impacts on three witnesses to the massacre at the Lekki Tollgate in Lagos in 2020.
Report published on the decisions rendered by the Independent Investigative Panel (IIP) on extra-judicial killings and enforced disappearances committed by SARS.
In 2024, IRCT and PRAWA, along with the National Human Rights Commission released a landmark report detailing the findings of the Independent Investigative Panel (IIP) on extrajudicial killings and enforced disappear-ances by Nigeria’s Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), a unit notorious for torturing hundreds of Nigerians with near total impunity for a decade.
After the Lekki Tollgate massacre in October 2020, which spurred widespread protests, SARS was disbanded and the IIP was set up to investigate its crimes.
report on the decisions rendered by the Independent Investigative Panel (IIP) on extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances committed by SARS.
Watch the film detailing how IRCT Member Centre, Prawa, played a leading role in convincing the government of nigeria to dispand the SARS police unit and to retrain its officers.
Prawa has long helped train police officers in human rights and capacity building.
“If it was not for counselling I would have broken down by now because I felt so bad.”
In Focus:
Uganda
The value of high quality evidence for accountability was underlined in a successful civil compensation claim against the police under the Prevention and Prohibition of Torture Act 2012.
Lutaaya Muhammad, a motorbike taxi rider, was arrested by Uganda Police at Katwe in the capital Kampala in November 2018. On 20 August 2024, the High Court awarded him fifty million Uganda shilling (EUR13,000) after accepting “evidence so consistent” that he had been held without charge and tortured.
The Court relied on the evidence of an Istanbul Protocol medico-legal produced by Independent Forensic Expert Group (IFEG), in coordination with IRCT member the African Centre for the Treatment of Torture Victims (ACTV) which detailed the blunt trauma injuries to Muhammad’s spine that had left him incapacitated and unable to work. Six police officers and the Attorney General were found to have violated Muhammad’s Article 44 rights under Uganda’s 1995 Constitution, read together with the 2012 Act. Muhammad’s criminal case against the police is ongoing, as is ACTV’s work, supported by IRCT, to establish a network of local forensic experts to support more such cases in the future.
Read more on the Uganda Country Page.
In Uganda, ACTV, IFEG, and IRCT cooperated to provide high-quality medico-legal evidence that secured compensation for a torture survivor and strengthened anti-torture accountability.
In Focus:
Chad
IRCT-IFEG forensic experts helped Reuters uncover evidence suggesting a political assassination of opposition leader.
The opposition leader Yaya Dillo was killed, two months before presidential elections. The Government said Dillo died in a gunfight with security forces. IRCT-IFEG forensic experts helped Reuters uncover a very different story, pointing towards a political assassination. Professor Derrick Pounder, a U.K.-based pathologist said the visible gunshot wound was “incompatible” with a scenario of an exchange of gunfire. “Overall, I have a very high level of confidence that this is a contact gunshot wound and strongly corroborates the allegation of an extra-judicial execution,” he said to Reuters.
Read more on Chad’s country page.
Credit: Shutterstock / IRCT-IFEG forensic experts helped Reuters investigate whether Yaya Dillo,Chad’s opposition leader, was assassinated.
“The fight against torture just started and we will continue to fight.”
The Nairobi Declaration
“We are mothers, fathers, daughters, sons, grandparents, good friends, active members of our communities affirming our agency and support and solidarity with each other and all other survivors of torture.”
So begins the Nairobi Declaration 2024, issued by survivors of torture and other human rights violations from 14 countries across Sub-Saharan Africa in 2024.
Survivors gathered in Nairobi, Kenya to share their experiences and opinions with the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Dr Alice Edwards, and to become active actors in the global anti-torture movement. Following this event, the Nairobi Declaration 2024, was issued by survivors of torture and other human rights violations from 14 countries across Sub-Saharan Africa.
The three-day Survivors’ Hearing was organised by IRCT and World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) with our members and partners in Kenya the Independent Medico Legal Unit (IMLU), Mwatikho Torture Survivors Foundation (MATESOF), Centre Against Torture Kenya Foundation (CAT) and The Center for Victims of Torture (CVT Nairobi).
Read the Nairobi Declaration here
“Self-reliance helps survivors to cope and become productive and it helps build the community, and then the community also supports the survivor.”
Africa’s Century
“Danish engagement with African countries must continue to build on strong values and the wish for well-functioning international co-operation and respect for international law. Democracy and human rights. Rights for women and girls, workers and minorities. The freedom to express oneself, think, believe, and assemble freely. And the right to a life free of torture.”
– Africa’s Century: The Danish Foreign Ministry, 2024
Briefing the Ambassador
African female leaders from IRCT members in Kenya, Nigeria and Zimbabwe, along with members of IRCT Secretariat, met Denmark’s ambassador to Kenya, Stephan Schönemann. The team gave the ambassador some input on Denmark’s new Africa Strategy:
1) A robust civil society is good for all and fills crucial gaps in service delivery, such as mental health support and justice for torture survivors.
2) Female leadership will get things done. More of it!
3) Rule of law is vital as is anti-corruption work.
Both are good for business.
Read Africa’s Century: The Danish Foreign Ministry, 2024
Highlight:
Global Standards Training in Sub Saharan Africa
In 2024 a three-day training in Nairobi, co-hosted by the IRCT Secretariat and national member Independent Medico-Legal Unit (IMLU), brought together participants from 19 of 27 Sub-Saharan Africa members, from 12 countries, for face-to-face discussions on best practices and challenges in their centres, and how to strengthen implementation of IRCT’s Global Standards on Rehabilitation (GSR).
Discussions centred on five of the 17 GSRs that members surveyed had expressed a need to improve.
Read more about GSR here.
Alexis Mashimango Bora-Uzima, AVVDH DR Congo
GSR 3: Safety of Victims
“I’m going to give the example of the DR Congo. When the security services target an organisation. They destroy the office. Fortunately, as he said, we keep certain data separate. We don’t keep all the data in the office. They’ll intimidate you. They’ll torture you to see the victim’s data. Wouldn’t it be better to use coding? Instead of hiding the victim’s name, the data is encoded, however possible.”
Nodjigoto Charbonnel, AJPNV, Chad
GSR 5: Access to Justice
“We trained 20 community paralegals who are themselves survivors of torture. Now they are working in their respective communities encouraging victims of torture to recognise themselves as victims of torture… We want 10,000 signatures from torture victims on a petition. The President will be directly confronted with this petition from the victims of torture in Chad so that the government pass the law on rehabilitation and reparations for the survivors of torture in Chad.”
Kolbassia Haoussou, Freedom From Torture, UK
GSR 9: Victim’s Participation
“Any changes that go ahead in Freedom From Torture services which will have an impact on the survivors cannot go ahead without the survivors ratifying the changes. That’s the real key element that now governs everything … On the issue of vulnerability, it is usually the clinician deciding the issue. I don’t have an issue with that. The issue comes on deciding whether a survivor should engage or not engage. There are some people that are very vulnerable, but they want to engage and can engage better than one you think is ready. So we need a system in place to allow people who say they want to engage to engage.”
Joseph K. Henah, LAPS, Libera
GSR 12: Care for Staff
“If the staff are not taken care of then the working system becomes challenging. For example, if you talk about vicarious trauma, how will that affect the staff physically, psychologically and trickle down to the client as well? We are doing supervision weekly, monthly. Then the staff will be better so they are able to manage themselves, so that they are able to work effectively, so that they can regulate their emotions and be able to be strong.”
Uju Agomoh, PRAWA, Nigeria
GSR 14: Advocating for Rehabilitation
“This issue of telling stories, it is one area where we have been weak. I don’t think we’ve done enough. Someone told me once, ‘You’ve done so much, but you’ve been blinking in the
dark’ … We would love to see from IRCT some technical guidance and advice in terms of telling that story. Sometimes seeing an international organisation’s logo next to the logo of a centre stuck somewhere in Africa, it’s also very helpful. It means you are really relevant.”
