Iraq has faced criticism from human rights groups this week following the hanging executions of 36 people. The 36 men were hanged on Sunday the 21st of August, after they were found guilty of involvement in the 2014 Speicher massacre, in which up to 1,700 Shi’ite military recruits were slaughtered
Scores of civilians were killed in the northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo last Saturday, August 13th when an unidentified group attacked a village near Beni town in North Kivu. The Governor of the North Kivu province, Julien Paluku, confirmed in a statement that at least 22 men and
On the 6th and 7th August, over 90 people were killed during peaceful anti-government protests in Ethiopia. Protesters were met with violence from security forces as they took to the streets across Ethiopia’s Oromia and Amhara regions. Video footage and witness reports suggest that demonstrators were fired upon with live
Every week it seems there is a plethora of new videos posted online that capture occasions of state actors, typically police, allegedly abusing their powers, or employing the use of seemingly unnecessary violence or deadly force. Police violence, passive or overt, is not an issue endemic to a single
Seventeen soldiers were killed and a further 35 wounded after Islamist militants launched an attack on a military base in Mali on Tuesday July 19th. Islamist militants from three local groups are believed to have carried out the coordinated raid in which a government base in Nampala, central Mali, was temporarily
On the 30th of June, Rodrigo Duterte took office as the president of the Philippines. In the first five days of his leadership a reported thirty “drug-dealers” have been killed and US$20 million worth of narcotics seized in police operations across the nation. Duterte’s presidential campaign was heavy on
A wave of fighting on the 24th of June in the South Sudanese city of Wau has resulted in the death of at least 43 people and the displacement of a further 120,000. Several sources report that the violence occurred when members of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army accompanied by
More than 5,000 hostages were liberated from Boko Haram controlled territories in northeastern Nigeria on Sunday June 26th. The operation, composed of Nigerian army soldiers with support from members of a local grassroots security force, took place across fifteen remote villages in the northeast of Borno State. Four villages,
The United Nations has issued a report recently condemning Eritrea for committing crimes against humanity. The report, published by the U.N. Commission of Inquiry (COI) on Human Rights, accused the East-African nation of breaching a plethora of basic human rights, pertaining primarily, but not limited to, the “enslavement” of
Reports of violence between Eritrean and Ethiopian military forces along their shared border surfaced on the morning of Monday June 13th. The fighting, which included artillery strikes is said to have begun on Sunday in the highly contested Tsorona area. Both sides claim to have inflicted casualties upon the other,
The president-elect of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, has publicly encouraged the extrajudicial killing of suspected drug dealers this week. In several addresses to his supporters, Duterte has taken the opportunity to offer both medals and bounties to members of the public for the summary executions of criminals, whilst reiterating
Planned nationwide protests in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) turned violent after security forces clashed with protesters on May 26th. Thousands took to the streets to protest president Joseph Kabila’s reluctance to schedule an election that is due to take place this November at the expiry of his second
