What's happening in Africa?

It's a sad time for us Africans

By RekiPublished 4 years ago • 7 min read

TRIGGER WARNING: This post includes discussions of rape, sexual assault and sexual violence.

Africa is a beautiful continent and to see it in such havoc breaks my heart. It's such a shame to see such a beautiful continent have to deal with the worst, ugliest, corrupt government there is. Africa needs justice.

For anyone that doesn't know what's happening in Africa and wants to be educated, this post is for you.

Nigeria #EndSars

SARS (Special Anti-Robbery Squad), is a branch of the Nigerian Police Force/Unit that was set up in 1992, to tackle a growing problem of people stealing from each other using force in Nigeria. They carry guns, but they don't wear police uniform or badges. They have been known to torturing young citizens in Nigeria. The real reason is unknown, but it seems that having nice hair, a nice car or a nice phone contributes to them attacking and kidnapping citizens. Most result in death unless money is given to the SARS unit and they eventually leave them alone. There were many tweets, with people talking about their issues with SARS and many protests, which started the movement, End SARS. One of them called Miracle spoke out.

He was arrested in 2017 after being accused of stealing a laptop, but was then held for 40 days and tortured before he was brought to court.

The 23-year-old, Miracle, said:

"They started using all manner of items to beat me, including machetes, sticks, inflicting me with all kinds of injuries. One of the officers used an exhaust pipe to hit me on my teeth, breaking my teeth. I was left on that hanger for more than three hours."

There are currently protests demanding to bring an end to police brutality.

Dem Republic of Congo #CongoIsBleeding #SilentHolocaust

Congo is going through one of the most horrible things. A silent holocaust. There are millions of them being killed because the western world wants and can benefit from their natural resources. There have been armed groups attacking innocent people causing over 50,000 people to flee their homes. Congolese men, women and even children are being tortured, starved, raped and killed. 48 women are raped every hour; millions displaced, over 6 million are killed (with 3 million of them being children). Many children as young as six are suffering the same atrocities as the women. The UN reported that women and children are the primary targets of sexual acts of violence. Many children are forced to become child soldiers, which can be very dangerous as they are too young.

Namibia #ShutItAllDown

In Namibia, there have been sexual gender-based violence against women and children. On the 10th of April 2020, a 21 year old woman named Shannon Wasserfall went missing. 6 months after her disappearance, her father had gotten an anonymous text message revealing where his daughter Shannon was buried. He gave this information to the police to go and dig the remains. That is when they found her body. Because of this, this caused many young people to protest and demanding political action on sexual gender-based violence which started the movement Shut It All Down. Monthly, there have been at least 200 cases of domestic violence reported whilst more than 1,600 cases of rape were reported in the last 2 years.

South Africa #AmINext

On 24th of August 2019, a 19 year old woman named Uyinene Mrwetyana was out on a run doing errands in Cape Town, when she was raped by a 42 year old Post Office worker who then bludgeoned her to death. Her body was dumped in Khayelitsha. When he was arrested, he allegedly told police that she put up such a fight, that he had to use the scale to hit her over her head. This is what sparked the Am I Next movement. Women wore black and took to the streets asking, "Am I Next?" South African women demanded answers. Cape Town was ranked among the deadliest cities in the world in a survey done by the Mexican Council for Public Security and Criminal Justice in 2019. In 2018, every three hours, a woman in South Africa is raped and murdered.

Cameroon #AnglophoneCrisis

Cameroon is in the midst of a humanitarian crisis. They have been suffering for 4 years now as this Anglophone crisis movement started in 2016. Since that year, over 4,000 people have died, almost 500,000 have been displaced, and activists have been jailed for demonstrating against marginalisation and "francophonisation." The meaning of Francophonisation is wanting to have Cameroon speaking French and only French. This means that if English is spoken by anyone, violence will be inflicted upon them. Because of this movement, the government have arrested Anglophone Leaders, blocked the internet for three months and installed a curfew in repressive measures which become deadly when, in September 2019, 40 people were killed in massive demonstrations.

Liberia #RapeNationalEmergency

Liberia has been going through a crisis with rape against young women and children. As of the 11th of September 2020, President George Weah declared rape in Libera, a national emergency. Rape during the pandemic had increased by 50% with over 1,000 cases of rape being reported within the last 10 months. Rape has been a severe issue since Liberia's 14 year civil war from 1989-2003. President George Weah introduced the first set of new measures to address the increase in violence against women. The measures include designating a specific prosecutor to handle rape cases and setting up a national sex offender registry. He is also creating a national security task force to handle sexual and gender-based violence and is allocating $2 million to address the issue. Women’s rights advocates praised the move but emphasise the need to hold Weah accountable.

Ivory Coast & Ghana #ChildTrafficking

In Ivory Coast (Côte d'Ivorie) and Ghana, there are Child Trafficking and Child Labour crisis going on where children are being trafficked from Burkina Faso and Mali to work in Ghana and Ivory Coast as slaves on Cocoa Farms. As of 2020, the number of children being trafficked has risen since 2010. The levels were higher than in 2010 when companies including Mars, Hershey, Nestle and Cargill agreed to reduce the worst forms of child labour in Ghana and Ivory Coast’s cocoa sectors by 70 percent by 2020. As of April 2020, more than 2 million children worked in the sector last season in the West African countries that produce about two-thirds of the world's cocoa.

Zimbabwe #ZimbabweanLivesMatter

There are human rights issues currently happening within Zimbabwe. Despite President Emerson Mnangagwa repeatedly voicing his commitments to human rights reforms, Zimbabwe remained highly intolerant of basic rights, peaceful dissent and free expression in 2019. When the President unexpectedly increased the price of fuel, citizens of Zimbabwe protested peacefully. Security forces responded with lethal force, killing at least 17 people, raping at least 17 women, shooting and injuring 81 people, and arresting over 1,000 suspected protesters during door-to-door raids. Months later, several civil-society activists, political opposition leaders, and other critics were arrested, abducted, beaten, or tortured. Over the past few months, Zimbabwe has been involved in anti-government protests both online and on the ground to raise awareness about human rights violations and media censorship at the hands of their President, Emmerson Mnangagwa and his government.