In the 712-page World Report 2023, its 33rd edition, Human Rights Watch reviews human rights practices in close to 100 countries. “The best way to ensure effective African solutions to African problems would be for leaders to efficiently deploy the strong instruments at their disposal to protect victims of human rights abuses.” “The regional efforts to address certain crises in Africa in 2022 have lacked sufficient political will and leadership, leaving countless civilians caught up in conflict with nowhere to turn,” said Mausi Segun, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. The African Union (AU) and subregional mechanisms should urgently adopt measures and establish systems to ensure rigorous human rights monitoring and reporting in areas of conflict, and to avert further atrocities and humanitarian catastrophes. These violations occurred against a backdrop of backsliding on democratic safeguards and rule of law. (Nairobi) – African leaders failed to tackle widespread abuses against civilians by state security forces and non-state armed groups and insufficiently prioritized justice efforts for victims of atrocities across the continent, Human Rights Watch said today in its World Report 2023. A compound of abandoned buildings sheltering internally displaced people near the town of Dubti, in Ethiopia’s northern Afar region, June 7, 2022.

Armed conflicts in africa