After more than eight months of diplomatic efforts by the United States and Qatar to end the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), civilians continue to face serious human rights abuses by the Rwanda-backed March 23 Movement (M23) and the Wazalendo, a coalition of armed groups supported by the Congolese army. As the presidents of Rwanda and DRC prepare to sign a peace agreement at the White House today, Amnesty International has said:

“The upcoming signature of the peace deal between the presidents of DRC and Rwanda in Washington takes place as the violence continues in eastern DRC with immense suffering for civilians,” said Tigere Chagutah, Amnesty International’s Regional Director for East and Southern Africa.

“Months of discussions and the signing of multiple agreements in Washington and Doha have had no tangible impact on the lives of Congolese civilians. President Trump must press M23, Rwandan and Congolese leaders to end ongoing human rights abuses against civilians in the country and clearly indicate that they will be held individually accountable for their failure to respect the agreement.”

The upcoming signature of the peace deal between the presidents of DRC and Rwanda in Washington takes place as the violence continues in eastern DRC with immense suffering for civilians.

Tigere Chagutah, Amnesty International’s Regional Director for East and Southern Africa

Amnesty International has received credible reports of abuses committed by Wazalendo fighters and revenge killings by M23 against civilians suspected of collaborating with the Wazalendo. Tens of thousands of residents were displaced in October. In parts of North Kivu province, many civilians have resorted to living in forests for fear of attacks by armed groups.

“Congolese are fed up with lofty rhetoric and diplomatic language,” said Tigere Chagutah “They are tired of waiting. Thousands of civilians are caught between two brutal forces. On one side, they face summary killings, torture, gang rape and abductions by Rwandan-backed M23. On the other side, they are killed, ill-treated, abducted and raped by members of the Wazalendo.”

President Trump must press M23, Rwandan and Congolese leaders to end ongoing human rights abuses against civilians in the country and clearly indicate that they will be held individually accountable for their failure to respect the agreement.

Tigere Chagutah

“It’s appalling that international diplomats, including those from the US, European Union and African Union, are shirking their moral and international obligations by not applying direct and consistent pressure on Rwandan and DRC leaders to stop supporting abusive armed groups,” said Tigere Chagutah.

“World leaders are aware of the killings and rapes committed by the warring parties in DRC and choose to disregard them. Officials from the US, European Union and the African Union must prioritise stopping human rights abuses. Until diplomats impose consequences on the backers of the M23 and the Wazalendo, Congolese civilians will continue to suffer,” said Tigere Chagutah.

Background

US, Congolese and Rwandan diplomats have worked on the peace deal set to be signed in Washington since April. Rwandan and DRC officials signed a peace agreement in Washington on 27 June, which allows Rwanda to maintain their “defensive measures” in eastern Congo until the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) and affiliated armed groups are “neutralized.”

The FDLR is an armed opposition group operating in eastern DRC mainly composed of Rwandan Hutu. It contains remnants of the Interahamwe and former Rwandan soldiers responsible for the 1994 Rwandan genocide, as well as fighters not involved in the genocide, including many too young to have participated in the genocide. Rwandan President Paul Kagame has called the FDLR an “existential threat” to Rwanda.

Rwanda and M23 signed a framework for a peace agreement in Qatar on 15 November 2025 designed to end the fighting in DRC. The deal included eight protocols, most of which still required negotiation by the two parties.

The post DRC: Peace deals fail to end human rights abuses appeared first on Amnesty International.

By Nciko wa Nciko and Samrawit Getaneh

The African Union declared 2025 to be the “Year of Justice for Africans and People of African Descent through Reparations”. The African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights has an opportunity to make that more than just a slogan, as it considers the current request for an advisory opinion before it, on states’ human rights obligations in the context of climate change. It has an opportunity to issue a landmark opinion affirming the link between colonialism and the harms of climate change to people(s) across the continent. Such an opinion would mark a major step forward from the International Court of Justice and in Africa’s fight for reparative justice.

On July 30, 2025, Amnesty International published a report recounting how, during the French colonial era in Madagascar, authorities deliberately unleashed harmful, genetically manipulated cochineal parasites across some 40,000 hectares (98,850 acres) of a drought-resilient vegetation in the Androy region in Madagascar’s deep South.

Between 1924 and 1929, the parasites destroyed roughly 100km (62 miles) of vegetation cover each year.

Madagascar’s droughts are being intensified by human-induced climate change, driven largely by high-income historically high emitting countries, such as France – the very colonial power that left the Antandroy people vulnerable.

Nciko wa Nciko and Samrawit Getaneh

This was not a minor ecological loss. The vegetation had sustained the Antandroy people for generations, providing food and helping to preserve groundwater through chronic droughts. Its destruction erased a vital natural defence system against those droughts. More than a century later, the destruction has left the Antandroy people exposed to recurring mass hunger, displacement, and death whenever drought strikes.

Furthermore, Madagascar’s droughts are being intensified by human-induced climate change, driven largely by high-income historically high emitting countries, such as France – the very colonial power that left the Antandroy people vulnerable.

When science leads and politics lags

The scientific link between colonialism and climate vulnerability has long been established. In 2022, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which advises the United Nations on the science related to climate change, highlighted not only how colonialism contributed to the climate crisis itself but also how its enduring harms have left many communities in former colonies more vulnerable to climate effects, such as droughts, floods, cyclones and rising sea levels.

Effective climate action needs more than science; it also requires political backing for states, particularly those with greater historic responsibility for climate change, to act on mitigation, adaptation and financing strategies.

Nciko wa Nciko and Samrawit Getaneh

Effective climate action needs more than science; it also requires political backing for states, particularly those with greater historic responsibility for climate change, to act on mitigation, adaptation and financing strategies. When this doesn’t happen, countries with minimal historical responsibility who are suffering the most from climate change have no option but to seek clarity and accountability through a world court, in this case, the International Court of Justice (ICJ). The ICJ has the capacity to influence political processes. The ICJ, in particular, can lend global legitimacy to scientific evidence. Indeed, the ICJ has considerable moral and persuasive authority, often shaping the behaviour of states on the international political stage.

The opportunity for the ICJ to exert this influence arrived when in March 2023 Vanuatu, itself a former colony of both France and the United Kingdom, rallied the UN General Assembly to request an ICJ advisory opinion on states’ legal obligations regarding climate change. Formerly colonised nations in Africa and elsewhere joined the effort, many explicitly highlighting how colonial harms and climate injustices are interconnected.

When the ICJ delivered its opinion in July 2025, there was a glaring omission. The word “colonialism” appeared nowhere in relation to climate change, neither in the main opinion nor in the 12 separate opinions and declarations issued by its judges. The ICJ also sidestepped a critical question: how far back in time can claims for climate obligations reach? This question is crucial, because former colonial powers often claim that colonialism was not prohibited under international law when it was practised and, therefore, no legal obligation to provide reparations exists. They also often defend their role in causing climate change by arguing that they were unaware of the harm and faced no legal limits on greenhouse gas emissions until recently.

Customary international law shatters the colonial defence

Despite its regrettable silence on the question of colonialism, the ICJ offered some reassurances to countries that are bearing the combined consequences of colonialism and climate change by affirming that states’ climate change obligations are not confined to climate treaties. They also flow from customary international law, which dictates that a state’s responsibility can extend into the present if a wrongful act continues to affect the enjoyment of human rights, regardless of when that act originally occurred.

Engaging customary international law is significant because it reshapes the question that any Court ought to ask about colonial climate legacies. In this context, the relevant question is not whether states can be held accountable for the intertwined impacts of colonialism and climate change. Nor is it how far back we should look to assign responsibility for greenhouse gas emissions, which linger in the atmosphere for centuries. The question is: are harms rooted in the colonial era, including those that shape climate vulnerability, causing human rights violations today?

The simple answer is yes. The greenhouse gases now heating our planet and fuelling a cascade of rights violations have been trapped in the atmosphere for generations. They are the direct legacy of the fossil fuel burning that powered the industrial rise of former colonial powers since the 1750s and their post World War I & II economic recovery. In Madagascar, the French colonial administration’s destruction of the drought-resilient vegetation that had long sustained the Antandroy people stripped them of their natural defence against recurring droughts. This forced them into dependence and cheap labour within the colonial cash-crop economy. All this helped expand the forging of Europe’s economic paths and markets, which were powered by the burning of fossil fuels, releasing unprecedented quantities of greenhouse gases, which caused climate change.

The ICJ’s half measure: Opening the door, then closing it

By affirming that customary international law can ground claims for climate-related reparations, the ICJ appeared to open the door for climate demands tied to colonial harms. Yet, in the same opinion, the ICJ reinforced one of the very arguments long used by those who benefited from colonialism to reject responsibility.

The ICJ stated that full reparation — through restitution, compensation or satisfaction — is possible only when a “sufficiently direct and certain causal link” can be proven between the wrongful act and the injury. But making such a definitive link between innumerable acts of colonial violence and the impacts they had in exacerbating climate-change vulnerability is nearly impossible.

The requirement of such a definitive link as a precondition for colonial reparations, without qualifying how it could practically work for colonialism and climate change impacts, provides cover to countries like France. In Madagascar’s case, for instance, the French government could easily argue: “It has been a century since the colonial destruction of drought-resistant vegetation, and factors like population growth have played a role and the act of greenhouse gas emissions and destruction of ecosystems was not regarded as a violation. How can France be held legally responsible and realistically be expected to quantify reparations today?” As UN experts have observed, “the greatest barrier to reparations for colonialism and slavery is that the principal beneficiaries of both lack the political will and moral courage to make them a reality.”

Will the African court echo the ICJ’s silence, or break it?

Since May 2025, the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights has been reviewing a request for an advisory opinion on the human and peoples’ rights obligations of African states in the context of climate change. This is more than a procedural exercise. The request highlights the relationship between climate change and colonialism – a point that human rights actors intend to emphasise in their submissions before the court.

This is therefore a chance for the African Court to articulate what the ICJ would not: that the fight for climate justice is inextricably linked with Africa’s fight for reparative justice.

Nciko wa Nciko and Samrawit Getaneh

This is therefore a chance for the Court to articulate what the ICJ would not: that the fight for climate justice is inextricably linked with Africa’s fight for reparative justice. Such a stance would lay bare the plight of those still suffering the intersecting harms of colonialism and climate change such as the Antandroy. It would contribute to breathing life into the Year of Reparations and align with the African Commission’s 2022 Resolution on Africa’s Reparations Agenda, which provides the African Court a mechanism through which to push African states to pursue justice for the trade and trafficking of enslaved Africans, colonialism and colonial crimes, and racial segregation. The possibilities remain open. It may also encourage them to return to the ICJ to give the world court an opportunity to redeem itself.

This opinion piece first ran on Al Jazeera.

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• Nciko wa NcikoAmnesty International Climate Justice Advisor in East and Southern Africa and its lead advisor on human rights in MadagascarNciko wa Nciko is an Amnesty International Climate Justice Advisor in East and Southern Africa and its lead advisor on human rights in Madagascar. 
• Samrawit GetanehLegal researcher at the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the ChildSamrawit Getaneh is a legal researcher at the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child where she is the focal person for the topic of climate change. 

The post True climate justice demands a reckoning with colonialism appeared first on Amnesty International.

The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) deliberately killed civilians, took hostages, pillaged and destroyed mosques, schools, and health clinics during a large-scale attack in April on Zamzam, the largest camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in North Darfur State, Amnesty International said in a new report published today. These violations must be investigated as war crimes under international law.

The report, “A refuge destroyed: RSF violations in Darfur’s Zamzam camp for internally displaced persons”, documents how, between 11 and 13 April 2025, the RSF attacked the camp, deploying explosive weapons and randomly shooting their firearms in populated residential areas. The relentless assault caused around 400,000 people to flee the camp between 13 and 14 April alone and was part of the RSF’s military campaign that began in May 2024 to capture El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur State. The RSF claimed control of El Fasher on 26 October, executing scores of unarmed men and raping dozens of women and girls as they captured the city.

“The RSF’s horrific and deliberate assault on desperate, hungry civilians in Zamzam camp laid bare once again its alarming disregard for human life. Civilians were ruthlessly attacked, killed, robbed of items critical to their survival and livelihood, and left without recourse to justice, while grieving the loss of their loved ones. This was not an isolated attack, but part of a sustained campaign against villages and camps for internally displaced persons,” said Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General. “Some international partners, such as the UAE, actively fueled the armed conflict by supporting the RSF with weapons.”

The RSF’s horrific and deliberate assault on desperate, hungry civilians in Zamzam camp laid bare once again its alarming disregard for human life.

Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General

“The only way to end these violations is to stem the flow of arms to parties to the conflict by expanding the arms embargo that currently applies to Darfur to the rest of the country. The member states of the African Union, the European Union and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), the United Kingdom, United States, Russia, and China must call for all countries, in the first place the United Arab Emirates (UAE), to refrain from transferring weapons and ammunition to the RSF, Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), and other actors. In addition, given the very high risk of diversion to the RSF, states must immediately cease all arms transfers to the UAE.”

For this report, Amnesty International conducted research between June and August 2025 and interviewed 29 people, mostly eyewitnesses, survivors, relatives of victims, journalists, conflict analysts, and medical personnel who responded to those injured during the attack. The organization also verified and analysed dozens of videos, photos and satellite imagery.

The RSF did not respond to Amnesty International’s request for comment.

‘The shelling was everywhere’

Survivors of the assault told Amnesty International that, on Friday 11 April and Saturday 12 April, shells landed in homes, on streets and, in one case, near a mosque during a wedding ceremony – all densely populated areas – killing and injuring civilians and setting homes on fire.

Satellite imagery captured on 16 April and analyzed by Amnesty International showed new craters, providing further evidence of the widespread use of explosive weapons in populated areas.

The only way to end these violations is to stem the flow of arms to parties to the conflict by expanding the arms embargo that currently applies to Darfur to the rest of the country.

Agnès Callamard

Survivors gave harrowing accounts of fleeing burning neighbourhoods and hiding from heavy fighting. Younis*, an emergency room volunteer, said: “It was really bad. You could not identify where the shelling is coming from. It was everywhere, in every place.”

Mamoun*, a man in his mid-twenties who volunteered to distribute humanitarian aid, recalled: “[RSF] fighters were just shouting and shooting anywhere, so that is how many people were killed.”

[RSF] fighters were just shouting and shooting anywhere, so that is how many people were killed.

Mamoun*, Eyewitness

Sadya*, a volunteer for non-governmental organizations, described RSF fighters driving through her neighbourhood, not far from the main market in Zamzam, on 12 April: “One [RSF fighter] will stand up through a small roof and just shoot around and shoot anyone in the street.”

Shooting in such a manner without a specific military target may constitute an indiscriminate attack, a serious violation of international humanitarian law.

Amnesty International also documented RSF fighters deliberately shooting and killing civilians. Eyewitnesses told Amnesty International that they saw RSF fighters shoot and kill 47 civilians who were hiding in homes, fleeing the violence, at a clinic and seeking refuge in a mosque. The deliberate killing of individuals who do not participate or are no longer directly participating in hostilities is a serious violation of international humanitarian law and constitutes the war crime of murder.

Eyewitness accounts and video evidence demonstrate that the RSF targeted civilians due to their perceived affiliation to the Joint Forces – an alliance of former Darfur rebel groups, fighting alongside the SAF – and the SAF. RSF fighters also pillaged and set fire to homes, businesses, the market and structures in the compound of the Sheikh Farah school and mosque, destroying or badly damaging critical civilian infrastructure. Religious, medical, and educational infrastructure are ? is protected under international law.

The displaced persons interviewed by Amnesty described making arduous journeys in search of safety without food, water and medical services. Some experienced acts that may amount to the war crimes of rape, murder and pillage.

Without food, water, healthcare services or legal redress, the survivors of the attacks have felt abandoned by international actors. They told Amnesty International that their priorities are humanitarian aid, safety and the protection of civilians. They also called for criminal accountability and compensation for the crimes committed during and in the aftermath of the attack.

Elnor*, who witnessed around 15 armed men, likely RSF fighters, storm his compound and shoot and kill his 80-year-old brother and 30-year-old nephew, said: “No-one is concerned with our situation.”

* Names have been changed to protect identities of interviewees for security and confidentiality reasons.

The post Sudan: Rapid Support Forces’ ruthless attack on Zamzam camp should be investigated for war crimes appeared first on Amnesty International.

live off the land
and die for it

Understanding and acting against violence
between herders and farmers in Chad

read the entire report now

© Amnesty International

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A crisis ignored for too long

In Chad, families are grieving, villages are burned, and thousands of people are living in fear.

Clashes between herders and farmers continue to increase, fuelled by the effects of climate change, pressure on natural resources, and the proliferation of weapons.

Our new report reveals serious facts: people killed, homes destroyed, abandoned populations and authorities failing in their duty to protect as well as a lack of justice for the victims

The government of Chad must act now.

And you can contribute to the change.

Sign the petition to demand immediate protection and real justice

New report: “Live off the land and die for it”

Based on two years of investigation, three field missions and more than a hundred interviews with survivors, witnesses and key actors, this report shows how impunity and inaction by the authorities fuel a cycle of reprisals.

You will find in it:

• an in-depth analysis of the causes of the conflict;
• stories of inhabitants who have lost everything;
• the direct consequences of the State’s inaction;
• Clear recommendations to protect communities.

read the entire report in english

An illustrated campaign: understanding the crisis through 2D animation

To make visible the realities experienced by the affected communities, we produced a three-minute 2D animation.

This video recounts, in an accessible and human way, the experiences of affected families: burned villages, improvised exoduses, loss of crops, lack of support.

The 2D illustrations from this video give a symbolic face to the victims, while respecting their dignity and safety.

Act now

Between 2022 and 2024, the provinces of Moyen-Chari, Mandoul, Logone Oriental and Logone Occidental were hit by violent attacks between farmers and herders. In the cases documented by Amnesty International alone, nearly 100 people have been killed, families have been forced to flee and more than 600 homes have been burned.

Tensions are exacerbated by the scarcity of arable land and water points, climate degradation, and the uncontrolled flow of weapons.

But what makes this crisis so deadly is the inaction of the state.

In several documented cases, the security forces arrived too late. In others, they have not acted at all, leaving people unprotected during attacks.

<strong>Sign our petition to call on the government of Chad to act immediately.</strong>

Help us

Your voice can help obtain the effective protection of civilians, independent investigations into attacks, the prosecution of those responsible, as well as reparations for victims.

Your signature counts.

Your solidarity protects lives.

Share the campaign

Spread this page to share the video and the report as well as relay the petition. The more of us there are, the greater the pressure will be.

Sign the petition to demand change now

act today

Together, let make the voices of those who want to live off the land but not die for it heard.

© Amaury Hauchard/AFP via Getty Images

The post Live off the land and die for it appeared first on Amnesty International.

Responding to today’s decision by an Azerbaijani court to remand in custody prominent opposition leader Ali Karimli, following a raid on his home and his arrest by the State Security Service, Denis Krivosheev, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, said:

“Ali Karimli’s detention is the latest outrage in the ongoing consolidation of authoritarian practices in Azerbaijan. There appear to be no limits to the government’s campaign to crush all political opposition and suppress all dissent in the country. While few are prepared to openly challenge the authorities, the decision to arrest an opposition leader, hold him incommunicado and press dubious charges of ‘attempted seizure of power’ against him, sends a chilling warning to anyone who may have doubts as to how far the Azerbaijani government is prepared to go.”

Ali Karimli’s detention is the latest outrage in the ongoing consolidation of authoritarian practices in Azerbaijan

Denis Krivosheev, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia

“Authorities must release Ali Karimli unless they can demonstrate reasonable evidence of an alleged criminal offence. All they have demonstrated so far, by snatching and holding him incommunicado, and thus denying him his right to a fair trial, is their determination to take this wave of politically motivated arrests targeting opposition figures, academics, journalists and activists, even further.”

Background

On 1 December, the Sabayil District Court in Baku remanded Ali Karimli, chairman of the opposition Azerbaijani Popular Front Party (APFP) in pre-trial detention for two months and 15 days, under Article 278.1 of the Criminal Code (“actions aimed at the violent seizure of power” and “violent change of the constitutional order”). Authorities have connected him to a criminal investigation against Ramiz Mehdiyev, the former head of the presidential administration, who was charged in October with attempted “seizure of power,” “high treason” and the “legalization of property obtained by criminal means.”

Ali Karimli was detained on 29 November after security agents raided his home in Baku after which he was kept incommunicado for two days. Several other APFP members were also detained following searches, including Presidium member Mammad Ibrahim who has been held incommunicado since.

These arrests come amid an intensified crackdown on dissent in Azerbaijan, where journalists, academics and opposition figures increasingly face harassment, arbitrary detention and politically motivated prosecutions.

The post Azerbaijan: Arrest of opposition leader is further evidence of consolidation of authoritarian practices appeared first on Amnesty International.