Human Rights Watch, World Report 2025

Country Report: African Union (Part 1)
Throughout 2024, the African Union (AU) reaffirmed its commitments on the protection of human rights and democratic governance across the continent. AU leaders, however, demonstrated persistent lack of genuine and sustained political will, hindering the Union’s ability to effectively engage in critical issues, including armed conflicts, with devastating consequences on civilians and widespread attacks on fundamental rights. The AU inconsistently responded to crises, at times failing to uphold its obligations, citing the principle of subsidiarity to regional bodies as a rationale for inaction. 
 
Institutional Updates 
In September, 51 African heads of state, along with AU Commission Chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat participated in the China-Africa Cooperation Forum, which predominantly focused on development and funding issues, overshadowing pressing human rights concerns. Fewer than 20 African heads of state were in New York for the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). AU Peace and Security Council (PSC) members discussed civil- military relations and conflict management in Africa on the margins of UNGA, without addressing the conflict in Sudan. 
 
The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) convened four sessions in 2024. During its June session, it laid the groundwork for a comprehensive general comment on the right to development, reinforcing AU’s leading efforts in this area. 
 
The February 37th AU summit inaugurated education as the Union’s yearly theme. Leadership of AU reforms changed from Rwandan President Paul Kagame to Kenyan President William Ruto, who had called for reforms granting the AU financial autonomy. The organization will elect a new chairperson in February 2025, to replace Mahamat, whose second term will expire. 
 
Rights, Peace Process in the Democratic Republic of Congo 
The AU has relied heavily on regional initiatives to address the crisis in eastern Congo, with limited results, leaving civilians to bear the brunt of the ongoing conflict. 
 
Throughout 2024, the Rwandan military and M23 armed group continued their offensive in the North Kivu, committing grave violations of international humanitarian law. The Congolese military and a coalition of abusive militias have also been implicated in laws-of- war violations in their response and increased the risk faced by displaced people. About 2.4 million people have been displaced, while fighting close to Goma has affected humanitarian aid delivery. 
 
In July, the PSC reiterated the importance of the Nairobi and Luanda processes as “viable frameworks for reconciliation between the DRC and Rwanda.” While the PSC expressed concern regarding the role of “negative forces” and encouraged direct dialogue between the two states, it has yet to publicly denounce the responsibility of Rwanda and other parties for abuse. 
 
In March, the PSC directed the AU Commission to expedite funding from the AU Peace Fund Crisis Reserve Facility and facilitate transfer of equipment donated to the Southern Africa Development Community Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (SAMIDRC), which deployed in January 2024. However, these limited contributions may not empower the mission to effectively support Congolese forces. SAMIDRC took over from an East African regional force, which withdrew its troops in December 2023. 
 
The Luanda mediation process between Rwanda and Congo secured a cease-fire agreement between the Congolese armed forces and the M23 in July that was rapidly violated. 
 
Despite raising alarm at the violations against displaced people in eastern provinces, the ACHPR is yet to take stronger action to address conflict-related abuses in eastern Congo, including denouncing abuses by all parties. 

Human Rights Crises in the Sahel: Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger 
Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger were suspended from the AU following unconstitutional government changes. The military authorities in the three countries have severely restricted fundamental rights and freedoms, shrinking the civic, political, and media space. Armed forces in Mali and Burkina Faso, alongside with Wagner fighters and allied militias, respectively, perpetrated serious human rights violations against civilians as part of counterinsurgency operations against abusive Islamist armed groups, which gained significant ground in the Sahel region throughout 2024. 
 
The AU has relied on the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to address regional issues. Yet the relationship between ECOWAS and Sahel countries seems irretrievably broken, with their withdrawal from the ECOWAS Treaty in early 2024, depriving their citizens from the possibility to seek justice for abuses through the ECOWAS court of justice. 
 
The ACHPR has been monitoring individual cases of human rights violations in Burkina Faso, including of abducted prominent rights activist Daouda Diallo, and has called on the authorities to open an investigation into mass killings of civilians in Zaongo village, Centre-Nord region, in November 2023. The ACHPR requested an update on such investigations and raised allegations of enforced disappearances with the Burkinabè authorities as part of Burkina Faso’s state reporting review in October. 
 
The AU, including the ACHPR, did not sufficiently address widespread conflict-related abuses, including alleged crimes against humanity by Burkinabè security forces, as well as increasing crackdown by the junta on opposition, media, and dissent throughout. 
 
On Mali, the ACHPR called out restrictions on civic space following the suspension of political parties and associations. It denounced the September 2023 attack on a boat by an Islamist armed group, while acknowledging further abuses by such groups, in apparent failure to address abuse by state actors and their allies. 
 
Human Rights Watch, World Report 2025. New York.