Africa

The Nigerian government should adopt and act on recommendations made by member states at the United Nations Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) process earlier this week.

The recommendations, made on January 23, cover a range of concerns, including the death penalty, lack of justice and accountability for abuses by government security forces and other actors, women’s political participation, sexual and gender-based violence, child marriage, and rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people.

The UPR is a peer-review process in which UN member states assess each other’s human rights records and recommend changes to comply with international standards. Human Rights Watch contributed recommendations for states before the review. This is Nigeria’s fourth UPR.

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Thousands of women marched in major cities on Saturday carrying placards that called for an end to femicide, with messages reading #StopKillingUs #EndFemicideKe and #WeJustWantToLive. Other signage bore the names of women who have been killed in recent months, with the messages “Say Their Names” or “SheWasSomeone”. Tens of thousands of posts calling for an end to the violent killings trended online.

At least 500 cases of femicide have been recorded in Kenya since 2016. Organisations that document the deaths say the actual number may be higher due to unreported cases or incidents where details are omitted in police or media reports, leaving the deaths miscategorised.

A majority of the cases of femicide were perpetrated by men who knew the women and were in intimate relationships with them, according to the data organisation Africa Data Hub. It found that many of the killings were preceded by systematic domestic violence.

A BBC investigation has uncovered a network of fake social media accounts in Uganda. Under false identities, they spread pro-government messaging and target critics with threats.

The mosquito-borne disease kills more than 600,000 people a year, mainly in Africa, according to the World Health Organization.

Children under five years old account for more than 80 percent of deaths on the continent. Following a pilot phase, the RTS,S vaccine is being rolled out at scale across Africa, starting in Cameroon.

At a hospital in the town of Soa, 20 kilometres (12 miles) from the capital Yaounde, six-month-old Noah Ngah became the first to receive the injection at the facility.

Rights groups are calling for the Kenyan government to urgently investigate and prosecute cases of femicide, after the brutal murders of two women.

“This is a national crisis – we are not doing enough as a country to protect women,” said Audrey Mugeni, the co-founder of Femicide Count Kenya, an NGO that documents the number of women killed across the country each year.

Last year, Femicide Count Kenya recorded 152 killings – the highest in the past five years. Representatives from the nonprofit, which records reported cases only, says the actual number of killings is likely to be much higher.

Namibia rejects Germany’s Support of the Genocidal Intent of the Racist Israeli State against Innocent Civilians in Gaza

On Namibian soil, #Germany committed the first genocide of the 20th century in 1904-1908, in which tens of thousands of innocent Namibians died in the most inhumane and brutal conditions. The German Government is yet to fully atone for the genocide it committed on Namibian soil. Therefore, in light of Germany’s inability to draw lessons from its horrific history, President @hagegeingob expresses deep concern with the shocking decision communicated by the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany yesterday, 12 January 2024, in which it rejected the morally upright indictment brought forward by South Africa before the #InternationalCourtofJustice that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in #Gaza.

Worryingly, ignoring the violent deaths of over 23 000 Palestinians in Gaza and various United Nations reports disturbingly highlighting the internal displacement of 85% of civilians in Gaza amid acute shortages of food and essential services, the German Government has chosen to defend in the International Court of Justice the genocidal and gruesome acts of the Israeli Government against innocent civilians in Gaza and the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

Germany cannot morally express commitment to the United Nations Convention against genocide, including atonement for the genocide in Namibia, whilst supporting the equivalent of a holocaust and genocide in Gaza. Various international organizations, such as Human Rights Watch have chillingly concluded that Israel is committing war crimes in Gaza.

President Geingob reiterates his call made on 31 December 2023, “No peace-loving human being can ignore the carnage waged against Palestinians in Gaza”. In that vein, President Geingob appeals to the German Government to reconsider its untimely decision to intervene as a third-party in defence and support of the genocidal acts of Israel before the International Court of Justice.

The product of a decade of research, this landmark collection is the first of four volumes in the Women Writing Africa Project, which seeks to document and map the extraordinary and diverse landscape of African women’s oral and written literatures. Presenting voices rarely heard outside Africa, some recorded as early as the mid-nineteenth century, as well as rediscovered gems by such well-known authors as Bessie Head and Doris Lessing, this volume reveals a living cultural legacy that will revolutionize the understanding of African women’s literary and cultural production.

Each text is accompanied by a scholarly headnote that provides detailed historical background. An introduction by the editors sets the broader historical stage and explores the many issues involved in collecting and combining orature and literature from diverse cultures in one volume. Unprecedented in its scope and achievement, this volume will be an essential resource for anyone interested in women’s history, culture, and literature in Africa, and worldwide.