Schlagwort: Amnesty International

States must demonstrate their commitment to international justice to ensure genuine accountability for victims of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide for all those in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) and in Israel, said Amnesty International following the recent conclusion of the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) Assembly of States Parties in the Hague.

“The international justice system is under attack and faces existential threats. There is no greater litmus test for this than in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory. States must demonstrate their commitment to international justice by supporting institutions such as the ICC and protecting their ability to pursue accountability,” said Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General. 

Amnesty International has extensively documented how Israel has committed and is continuing to commit genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, even despite the ceasefire, and how its ongoing system of apartheid amounts to crimes against humanity. Today the organization has also published in-depth research documenting war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Hamas and other armed groups during and after the attacks launched on 7 October 2023. 

“World leaders hailed last month’s UN Security Council resolution setting out a plan for Gaza as a blueprint for sustainable peace. But decades of international crimes cannot be swept under the carpet with deals that ignore accountability and entrench injustice. Truth, justice and reparations are the bedrocks of lasting peace,” said Agnès Callamard.

“Amnesty calls on all those in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory, as well the international community concerned about the evident flaws of the UN Security Council Resolution, to develop and commit to a roadmap for justice and reparations. This roadmap should aim to end Israel’s genocide, its system of apartheid and unlawful occupation of Palestinian territory, while also addressing crimes under international law by Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups.”

To guarantee genuine, effective and meaningful justice and non-recurrence, Amnesty International recommends that the roadmap be predicated on the complementarity of a variety of justice institutions and mechanisms.

These include ICC investigations into Israeli and Palestinian crimes, which must take place free from any obstruction and with access to investigators and other justice actors. Such investigations should consider Israel’s genocide and crimes against humanity of apartheid, as well as crimes committed by Palestinian armed groups before the 7 October 2023 attacks, during the attacks and since, with a view to ensuring that all individuals, including – where they are still alive – those most responsible, are brought to justice.

Victims of atrocities in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory deserve genuine justice. This does not just mean seeing perpetrators prosecuted and convicted but ensuring adequate and effective remedy and delivering guarantees of non-repetition

Agnès Callamard, Secretary General

The roadmap should commit states to support and fully cooperate with bodies such as the UN Commission of Inquiry and the ICC. They should enforce ICC arrest warrants and take all necessary steps to ensure the lifting of sanctions and restrictions imposed on Palestinian human rights organizations, which for decades have been documenting violations of international law and representing victims regardless.  

In parallel to international mechanisms, states can chart a new course for peace rooted in justice by exercising domestic, universal or other forms of extraterritorial criminal jurisdiction for international crimes committed in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel.  

“Victims of atrocities in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory deserve genuine justice. This does not just mean seeing perpetrators prosecuted and convicted but ensuring adequate and effective remedy and delivering guarantees of non-repetition. There is no escaping the reality that these are crucial steps towards lasting peace and security,” said Agnès Callamard.

Israel’s ongoing genocide, apartheid and unlawful occupation

Two months since the ceasefire was announced and all living Israeli hostages were released, Israeli authorities are still committing genocide against Palestinians in the occupied Gaza Strip with total impunity by continuing to deliberately inflict conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction, without signalling any change in their intent.

Amnesty International recently published a legal analysis of the current situation showing how the crime of genocide continues, along with testimonies from local residents, medical staff and humanitarian workers highlighting the dire ongoing conditions for Palestinians in Gaza. The organization found that despite a reduction in the scale of Israeli attacks, and some limited improvements, there has been no meaningful change in the conditions Israel is inflicting on Palestinians in Gaza and no evidence to indicate that its intent has changed.

At least 370 people, including 140 children, have been killed in Israeli attacks since the ceasefire was announced on 9 October. As part of its genocide for more than two years, Israel deliberately starved Palestinian civilians, restricting critical aid and relief provisions, including medical supplies and equipment necessary to repair life-sustaining infrastructure, despite some limited improvement. It has subjected them to wave after wave of inhumane forced displacement compounding their catastrophic suffering. Overall, more than 70,000 Palestinians were killed and over 200,000 injured, many of whom have sustained serious, life changing injuries.  

The objective probability that the current conditions would lead to the destruction of Palestinians in Gaza persists. Yet Israeli authorities have not signalled a change in their intent: they have ignored three sets of binding decisions by the International Court of Justice; they have failed to investigate or prosecute those suspected of responsibility for acts of genocide or hold accountable officials who have made genocidal statements. Israeli officials responsible for orchestrating and committing genocide remain in power, effectively granting them free rein to continue to commit atrocities.

Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in Gaza has taken place in the context of pervasive impunity for its ongoing crime against humanity of apartheid alongside decades-long unlawful occupation of Palestinian territory.

“It is against this backdrop of apartheid and unlawful occupation that Israel deliberately unleashed mass starvation, unprecedented bloodshed, apocalyptic levels of destruction, massive, forced displacement and placed a deliberate stranglehold on humanitarian aid – all illustrations of the ongoing crime of genocide,” said Agnès Callamard.

In the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, Israel’s cruel apartheid system and unlawful occupation have exacted a heavy toll on Palestinians. Israeli military operations, including aerial attacks, have killed at least 995 Palestinians including at least 219 children, displaced tens of thousands and caused extensive damage to essential civilian infrastructure, homes and agricultural land. The last two years have been marked by an escalation in state-backed settler attacks, leading to the killing, injuries and displacement of Palestinians. OCHA has documented more than 1,600 settler attacks that resulted in casualties and/or property damage since January 2025. And Palestinian herding communities in Area C are particularly affected by this wave of unrelenting state-backed violence. Despite international condemnations and some restrictive measures adopted by third states against individual settlers and settler organizations, settler violence continues to increase due to Israeli government backing and virtually total impunity.

The Trump peace plan is the latest in a series of fatally flawed initiatives, which seek to propose ‘solutions’ that sideline international law, implicitly rewarding Israel for its unlawful occupation, illegal settlements, and its system of apartheid, which are the root causes of the continuous atrocities Israel inflicts upon Palestinians.

The conditions established during the current ceasefire further entrench Israel’s system of apartheid and its unlawful occupation and compound injustice. Israel’s imposition of a ‘security perimeter’ (buffer zone) in Gaza risks making Israel’s unlawful occupation permanent and deprives Palestinians of their most fertile land. It also risks perpetuating the territorial fragmentation that underpins Israel’s system of apartheid by failing to ensure freedom of movement for Palestinians with the rest of the occupied territory.

Similarly, impunity is enjoyed by Israeli forces responsible for arbitrarily detaining, forcibly disappearing and systematically torturing Palestinian detainees. In a recent review of Israel’s record the UN Committee against Torture described “a de facto state policy of organized and widespread torture and ill-treatment, which had gravely intensified since 7 October 2023” and expressed grave concerns over “widespread allegations of sexual abuse of Palestinian detainees, both men and women, amounting to torture and ill-treatment.”  

The international community’s willful inaction towards holding Israel accountable for its crimes under international law and the failure to press it into adhering to the recommendations of UN mechanisms and international human rights organizations have entrenched Israel’s unlawful occupation and apartheid and have directly enabled Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in Gaza

Agnès Callamard

“The international community’s willful inaction towards holding Israel accountable for its crimes under international law and the failure to press it into adhering to the recommendations of UN mechanisms and international human rights organizations have entrenched Israel’s unlawful occupation and apartheid and have directly enabled Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in Gaza today,” said Agnes Callamard.

Crimes against humanity committed by Hamas and other armed groups

It is critical to also ensure accountability for crimes committed by Palestinian armed groups. More than two years after the Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, accounts of the atrocities committed by Palestinian armed groups on that day and their subsequent treatment of those held in captivity in Gaza are still emerging. Survivors of the attacks, including former hostages, as well as their families, continue to shed light on their own experiences, while calling for justice and redress.

Amnesty International is publishing a report today that sets out how Hamas’s military wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, and other Palestinian armed groups committed war crimes and crimes against humanity during their assault on southern Israel, and against hostages held in Gaza thereafter.

Amnesty International has documented how, in the early hours of 7 October 2023, Hamas forces and other Palestinian armed groups conducted a coordinated attack targeting mostly civilian locations. Around 1,200 people were killed – more than 800 of them civilians, including 36 children. The victims were primarily Jewish Israelis, but also included Bedouin citizens of Israel, and scores of foreign national migrant workers, students and asylum seekers. More than 4,000 people were injured, and hundreds of homes and civilian structures were destroyed or rendered uninhabitable. 

Through the analysis of the patterns of the attack, evidence and the specific content of communications between fighters during the attack, as well as statements by Hamas and leaders of other armed groups, the organization found that these crimes were committed as part of a widespread and systematic attack against a civilian population. The report found that fighters were instructed to carry out attacks targeting civilians.

“Our research confirms that crimes committed by Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups during their attacks on 7 October 2023 and against those they seized and held hostage were part of a systematic and widespread assault against the civilian population and amount to crimes against humanity,” said Agnès Callamard.

“Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups showed an abhorrent disregard for human life. They deliberately and systematically targeted civilians in locations such as their homes, or while at a music festival, with the apparent goal of taking hostages, which amounted to war crimes. They deliberately killed hundreds of civilians, including by using gunfire and grenades to drive terrified people, including families with young children, out of their safe rooms and hiding places or attacked them while they fled. Amnesty International also documented evidence that some Palestinian assailants beat or sexually assaulted people during the attack and mistreated the bodies of those they had killed.”

Our research confirms that crimes committed by Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups during their attacks on 7 October 2023 and against those they seized and held hostage were part of a systematic and widespread assault against the civilian population and amount to crimes against humanity

Agnès Callamard

Hamas has claimed that its forces were not involved in the targeted killing, abduction or mistreatment of civilians during the 7 October 2023 attacks and that many civilians were killed by Israeli fire. However, based on extensive video, testimonial and other evidence, Amnesty International has concluded that, while some civilians were indeed killed by Israeli forces as they sought to repel the attack, the vast majority of those who died were intentionally killed by Hamas and other Palestinian fighters who targeted civilian locations far from any military objectives. Palestinian fighters, including Hamas forces, were likewise responsible for abducting civilians from multiple locations and committing physical, sexual and psychological abuse against people they captured.

Another 251 people – mostly civilians, including older people and young children – were taken as hostages to Gaza on 7 October 2023. The majority of these 251 people were seized alive and held in captivity, but reportedly 36 of them were already dead when captured. They were held for weeks, months or, in some cases, over two years, with some hostages who returned alive describing to Amnesty International or in public forums being chained in underground tunnels for some or all of their captivity and enduring intense violence, deprivation and psychological abuse, including threats of execution. Some hostages were subjected to sexual violence, including sexual assault, threats of forced marriage or forced nudity. At least six hostages were killed by their captors.

Amnesty International interviewed 70 people, including 17 people who survived the 7 October 2023 attacks, victims’ family members, forensic experts, medical professionals, lawyers, journalists and other investigators. Researchers visited some of the sites of the attacks and reviewed over 350 videos and photos of scenes from the attacks and of people held in captivity in Gaza. 

Amnesty International’s investigation found that Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups committed the crimes against humanity of “murder”; “extermination”; “imprisonment or other severe deprivation of physical liberty in violation of fundamental rules of international law”; “enforced disappearance”; “torture”; “rape… or any other form of sexual violence of comparable gravity”; and “other inhumane acts”.

“Israel’s appalling record of violations against Palestinians including decades of unlawful occupation, apartheid against Palestinians and its ongoing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, can in no way excuse these crimes. Nor does it relieve Palestinian armed groups of their obligations under international law. The violations by Palestinian armed groups in the context of the 7 October 2023 attacks must be recognized and condemned as the atrocity crimes that they are. Hamas must also unconditionally return the remaining body in Gaza of a person killed during the attacks as soon as it is located,” said Agnès Callamard.

In recent weeks, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the formation of a committee to examine the government decision-making surrounding the 7 October 2023 attacks. However, this move has been widely criticized, including by survivors of the attacks, and families of those killed, for a lack of independence and a failure to follow precedents of judge-led commissions of inquiry.

The authorities of the State of Palestine should publicly acknowledge and denounce the serious violations of international law committed by Palestinian armed groups. They should also conduct independent, impartial and effective investigations to identify those suspected of violations and crimes and fully cooperate with international investigative mechanisms, including by sharing evidence.

International justice needed for all victims

The ongoing ICC investigation into the “situation in Palestine” and the arrest warrants the court has issued against Prime Minister Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity remain critical to the prospect of ensuring genuine accountability.

Taking steps to hold senior Israeli officials accountable for their crimes under international law is an essential step in the path towards bringing Israel’s genocide in Gaza to an end, to restore faith in international law as well as ensuring that all victims of war crimes and crimes against humanity are granted access to justice, truth and reparations.

Accountability is non-negotiable. The perpetrators of international crimes must face justice and the institutions they represent must commit to a new path rooted in human rights and international law, including by adopting legislation to prevent recurrence of future violations

Agnes Callamard

The ICC should also continue to investigate crimes committed by Palestinian armed groups before, during and after the 7 October 2023 attacks, with a view to ensuring that individuals suspected of responsibility for crimes against humanity and war crimes, are brought to justice.

“Accountability is non-negotiable. The perpetrators of international crimes must face justice and the institutions they represent must commit to a new path rooted in human rights and international law, including by adopting legislation to prevent recurrence of future violations,” said Agnès Callamard.

“All parties must acknowledge their responsibility and cooperate with investigative bodies and international justice mechanisms such as the UN Commission of Inquiry and the ICC by implementing their recommendations and allowing them to collect, preserve and analyse evidence for accountability. Victims must be heard, acknowledged, and granted effective remedy, including reparations. Without such concrete steps to ensure truth and justice there can be no lasting peace.”

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In 2023, celebrated photojournalist Sai Zaw Thaike travelled to Rakhine state determined to report on the widespread destruction caused by Cyclone Mocha. However, after a week he was arrested, interrogated and allegedly beaten. In September 2023 he was sentenced to 20 years in prison with hard labour after a trial that lasted just one day.

Sai Zaw’s friend and colleague, Swe Win, editor of Myanmar Now, is campaigning for his release, together with organizations like Amnesty International. Since 2021, more than 200 journalists have been imprisoned and at least seven have reportedly been killed in Myanmar. Media outlets have been banned – including Myanmar Now, which now operates from Australia – and journalists have been forced into exile.

In this piece, Swe Win describes the reality of being a journalist in a country under military control and shares insights into Sai Zaw’s life in prison.

I lead an independent news agency called Myanmar Now, where my team and I report on the most critical issues facing Myanmar, including politics, conflict and human rights abuses.  

Our team of professional journalists deliver accurate reporting at a time when our country is once again in a military dictatorship backed by powerful allies such as China, Russia, India.

I used to work closely with Sai Zaw – a well-known photojournalist in Myanmar. Brave, fearless and unafraid to defy authorities, Sai Zaw was at the forefront of a number of major news events in our country.

In 2021, as a result of the military coup, our country became more violent and journalism became an extremely dangerous profession. Journalists started fleeing the country, our newsroom was raided and we were all declared “terrorists”.

Sentenced to 20 years in prison

Things took a turn for the worse when the military came to power and Sai Zaw was one of the first people advised to leave the country after the coup. However, he decided to stay and document the junta’s violent crackdown, moving from one house to another, like a fugitive. He was living and working underground in Yangon as a photojournalist for our news outlet.

Sai Zaw was sentenced to 20 years in prison, with hard labour. His trial lasted one day. I was shocked.

Swe Win, Editor of Myanmar Now

When Cyclone Mocha slammed into our country, he was determined to report on it, despite the scrutiny he was under.  He travelled to Rakhine State, hundreds of miles from his hometown and embedded himself with a relief team. However, someone tipped off military intelligence, and Sai Zaw – my colleague and my friend – was arrested on 28 May 2023 and charged with causing fear and spreading false news.

Sai Zaw was sentenced to 20 years in prison, with hard labour. His trial lasted one day. I was shocked. This was one of the longest known prison sentences handed down to a journalist since the 2021 military coup in Myanmar.

The prison conditions are horrific

The prison conditions for Sai Zaw are horrific. Earlier this year he was allegedly beaten. He has been targeted not only for his background in journalism, but for speaking out on behalf of all the fellow prisoners who are suffering abuse in front of him.

Under military rule, lawlessness prevails. And despite his ordeal, he refuses to remain silent.

It’s been incredibly difficult to see the impact Sai Zaw’s arrest has had on his family. His mother is older now and his younger brother is disabled, having contracted polio as a child. Sai Zaw is the breadwinner and primary carer for his family members.

Only family members are permitted to visit Sai Zaw in prison, so this puts an added pressure on them. As a friend and colleague, I am not allowed to go and see him, even though I desperately want to.

Sai Zaw wants to be able to report freely

You could say Sai Zaw’s defiant nature, coupled with his passion for journalism, is what brought him notoriety. His aim was to defy the age-old power structure in our country through his camera and that’s what drove him to be one of the bravest, best photographers in Myanmar.

© Kon Blai

He started as a reporter, driven by curiosity, reporting on socio-economic issues affecting communities. He also reported on topics such as political prisoners, land confiscation by the military, and the struggles of factory workers.

Over the years he has worked for almost all the big major national news outlets as a photojournalist and he started getting recognized for his powerful coverage of major human rights issues, including the military crackdown on student protests and the rise of an ultra nationalist movement targeting Muslim minorities in our country.

Understanding our reality

All Sai Zaw wants is to live in a free country, unfettered by military rule. He should be able to report freely. He should be at home, spending time with his family and doing the things he loves, like playing football, watching Manchester United and seeing friends. Sai Zaw should be with his family who he adores. Instead, he is being beaten and subjected to periods of solitary confinement.

As long as Sai Zaw and other journalists remain in prison, simply for doing their work, people around the world must understand that the regime we are under is not changing for the better. Some may think that a stable dictatorship is better than war, but that is a misguided assumption. We need people to understand the reality of what we’re living.

Signs of solidarity and hope

I am calling for the military to immediately release Sai Zaw and I hope others will join me. I am so pleased Sai Zaw is part of Amnesty International’s Write for Rights campaign this year. It really gives journalists in Myanmar hope. With every letter written and every petition signed, it makes me feel like we’re taking a step forward. Sai Zaw and others have been cut off from the outside world, from their family and loved ones, but this means so much for their psychological survival. I know that any signs of solidarity and hope boosts Sai Zaw’s morale.

As journalists, our right to report freely deserves to be supported. We deserve to live in a just society, where we can do our jobs, protecting our communities and promoting truth and justice in a country that is free.

This story was originally published on The Diplomat.

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Against a backdrop of the spread of authoritarian practices, climate collapse and the erosion of international law, Amnesty International is launching its annual Write for Rights campaign on Human Rights Day (10 December) to support the victims of human rights violations and show that humanity can win.

This year’s campaign brings people together from around the world to fight for justice, dignity and a shared future, supporting those who are paying the price for defending human rights and speaking truth to power. From an Indigenous reindeer herder fighting to protect her community’s land in Norway, to a photojournalist jailed for reporting on a cyclone in Myanmar, and a little boy who lost his life after falling into a pit toilet at his pre-school in South Africa, all those featured in this year’s campaign are connected because their human rights have been violated.

We have a choice to make at this critical moment in history: continue to let authoritarian practices erode our freedoms or resist together and stand up for human rights.

Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General

“Despite the stark challenges facing humanity, every year Amnesty witnesses countless people from all over the world coming together to demonstrate the importance of activism and the lifechanging power of solidarity. Amongst others, this year’s Write for Rights campaign features people on the frontlines of the climate crisis, fighting to protect their communities from droughts, gas flares, development projects and pollution, who urgently need our collective support,” said Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General. 

“We have a choice to make at this critical moment in history: continue to let authoritarian practices erode our freedoms or resist together and stand up for human rights. By taking just a few minutes to write a letter, post on social media or sign a petition, anyone can help change the world and even save a life. Together we will prove that, even in the most adverse of circumstances, humanity can, must and will win out.” 

Supporting people at risk

This year, Write for Rights is calling on millions of people to come together to change the lives of individuals whose rights have been violated around the world.

Those featured in this year’s campaign include:

• Damisoa, from Madagascar, who is fighting for climate-displaced people in his country.
• Unecebo Mboteni, a three-year-old boy who died after falling into a pit toilet at his pre-school in South Africa.
• Juan López, from Honduras, shot dead after fighting to protect local rivers and a national park from mining and energy projects.
• Members from Mother Nature Cambodia, jailed for defending Cambodia’s environment from exploitation.
• Photojournalist Sai Zaw Thaike, arrested and sentenced to 20 years in prison with hard labour for reporting on the aftermath of a cyclone in Myanmar. 
• Ellinor Guttorm Utsi, fighting to ensure Sámi voices in Norway are heard and their rights are respected. 
• Sonia, a Tunisian lawyer who has dedicated her life to defending human rights and is facing years in prison for speaking out.
• The Guerreras por la Amazonía, from Ecuador, who are protecting their communities from gas flares which are causing toxic fumes and environmental degradation in the Ecuadorian Amazon.

For Ellinor Guttorm Utsi, the support she is receiving as part of Write for Rights has given her hope. The reindeer herder’s land and way of life are currently under threat, as the Norwegian Government plans to build several hundred wind turbines, which would disrupt the reindeer’s herding patterns.

While Ellinor is calling for a stop to these wind turbines, in a bid to protect her land and her culture, the 60-year-old is struggling to do it on her own.

“I am so pleased Amnesty International, an organization focused on activism, is supporting my campaign today. I am so happy to have the support of people who do this work every day,” said Ellinor. “This is our life – I don’t know another way of living. We need to fight for our land, to protect future generations.”

Changing lives

Since Write for Rights started in 2001, millions of people have changed the lives of those whose human rights had been stripped from them. Over 100 people featured in the campaign have seen a positive outcome to their case.

In 2023, Rocky Myers, a Black man with an intellectual disability, featured in the Write for Rights campaign. Rocky spent three decades on death row in Alabama for murder. He was convicted following testimonies blighted by inconsistencies and alleged police pressure. Hundreds of thousands of Amnesty supporters called for Rocky’s release, writing letters to demand that Alabama’s governor grant him clemency and commute his death sentence. In February 2025, this was granted.

“I know the outpouring of support meant the world to Rocky, and to know that so many people felt called to action is truly inspiring.

Miriam Bankston, a member of Rocky Myers’ legal team

Rocky’s fight is not over, as he seeks justice for violations in his case, but the threat of execution has been stopped. 

“Not only did this campaign bring awareness to his case, but it was done in such a way that honoured Rocky as a person, father, and grandfather,” said Miriam Bankston, a member of Rocky Myers’ legal team. 

“I know the outpouring of support meant the world to Rocky, and to know that so many people felt called to action is truly inspiring.”

Join this year’s campaign and become part of a community working to make the world a more just and compassionate place. Join Write for Rights today.

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Damisoa is from the Androy region in the very southern tip of Madagascar. In 2021, he and his family were forced to leave their home due to droughts worsened by climate change meaning there wasn’t enough food for them to survive there.

People displaced by famine and now living in northern Madagascar urgently need humanitarian assistance. But aid is currently almost exclusively concentrated in drought-stricken southern Madagascar.

Damisoa tells his story of displacement and survival and calls for the government to take urgent steps to address the hunger, homelessness and poor healthcare faced by him and others displaced by drought in Madagascar.

I should not have left my ancestral land, in southern Madagascar, but we were forced to leave. Famine had attacked our land.

I didn’t have much to sell to afford the journey: no goat or zebu (cattle), so we sold the cooking pots and the furniture from our home. That made us enough money for our family of 10 to leave. But it didn’t get us far.

We stopped in Toliaria and then again in Antananarivo. Each time, finding whatever work we could to raise the money for the next bus fare: gem mining, menial work, cleaning and laundry. The whole family, including my wife and my children, worked hard to raise money.

Eventually we made it to Ambondromamy, in the Boeny region, in northern Madagasacar. We were told we could earn a living in the forest by burning charcoal and growing corn and mung beans. Straight away, we began cultivating our crops and producing charcoal.  

Then the authorities came. As newcomers, we were afraid: when we saw their guns, we ran away. Some of us were arrested while others were left behind.

Now we have a place to stay, but we are still suffering

Eventually the local government found a solution for vulnerable people by resettling us to some small huts in Tsaramandroso, nearby. They built a place for people to stay. I did not bring my family this far for us to die, but to save our lives.  So, we accepted the offer of a place to live.

However, when we were settled, we continued to struggle. The huts do not feel like we are sleeping indoors. Especially during the rainy season (every December to April), it feels like a thunderstorm inside: the walls let the rain in, and our space is flooded.

© Amnesty International

The water around us is deadly

When the water is high, during the rainy season each year, it kills people. This water has a monster and invisible creatures in it: the river is infested with crocodiles. It is also very fast flowing, and people have died trying to cross, so we are afraid of passing through until the tide is lower.

We do not have a boat to cross the river, we use yellow jerry cans as an alternative. We attach the jerry cans with a long rope on the other side of the water and pull it across. We are never sure if it will break or not. Several people help: some know how to swim and can help others cross by carrying them on their backs.

© Amnesty International

When there is no more to share, we sleep hungry

We do not have any seeds or food to eat. Because of this poverty, we ignore the danger, and we try to cross the water because we need to look for food. I feel like we live in an abyss, not on earth. Where can we go when we have this water around us?

We would die if we did not help each other. Whenever one of us, from among the 33 households, has something we share it. When there is no more to share, we sleep hungry. We take lalanda leaves (wild sweet potato leaves), boil them with water and salt, and that is what we eat to survive until the next day.

We are fearful of getting sick

My sister went into labour during the rainy season, when the water was high. We did not have enough money to bring her to the doctor. Instead, we walked three hours, crossing the deadly river to see the matron.

Sadly, my newborn niece died because her mother, weakened by hunger and thirst, could no longer breastfeed.

We are fearful of falling sick because we do not have any health insurance. We are poor, so we are careful to avoid complications.

We would only struggle more if we moved elsewhere

We stay here in the North, because we struggled more when we were back in our ancestral land, in the South. And if we leave this place, we will face more struggles. If we leave again, we will be displaced again to a new place, alone, with no government support or humanitarian aid.

We would rather suffer here. It is better to stay with people you are acquainted with. And the land we are staying on is the only place the government has made available for people in our situation.

So, we prefer to stay, but we struggle. We do not have a plough to till the land, we do not have oxen. But we stay here to avoid more struggle.

I am not ashamed to demand humanity 

As the head of the village, I represent the residents here. It’s important to me that I do them justice in this role and use this position to amplify my community’s voices. We are not ashamed of our poverty which is due to the lack of government support given to us.

We are not ashamed to talk about our struggles. There is nothing to hide. If we let shame stop us from speaking out, all of our people could die.

This is where we live, this is our situation. We ask the government to consider our request for support. We look forward to their assistance.

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