The CIVICUS Monitor announced in a new report Wednesday that fundamental freedoms are under threat in most of Africa south of the Sahara. 2023 saw widespread violations of civic freedoms across the continent including violent crackdowns on peaceful protests and detention and intimidation of journalists and human rights defenders.
The report, People Power Under Attack 2023, assesses civic space conditions in 198 countries and territories, looking at citizens’ ability to exercise their freedoms of assembly, association and expression. For Africa, CIVICUS Monitor’s data showed that in most of the continent, citizens do not enjoy their basic rights without serious restrictions. Only Cabo Verde, Mauritius, Namibia, Sao Tome and Principe and Seychelles received ratings of ‘narrowed’ or ‘open,’ meaning there are few restrictions on civic space.
“From a civic space perspective, there is unfortunately little to celebrate in Africa in 2023,” said CIVICUS Monitor researcher Ine Van Severen. “In far too many countries, police crushed protests and authorities jailed journalists.”
The CIVICUS Monitor rates each country’s civic space conditions based on data collected throughout the year from country-focused civil society activists, regionally-based research teams, international human rights indices and the Monitor’s own in-house experts. The data from these four separate sources are then combined to assign each country a rating as either ‘open,’ ‘narrowed,’ ‘obstructed,’ ‘repressed’ or ‘closed.’
Out of 50 African countries, 45 received ratings of ‘obstructed,’ ‘repressed’ or ‘closed.’ Senegal saw the year’s biggest deterioration in Africa, dropping from ‘obstructed’ to ‘repressed’ amid a crackdown on dissenting voices ahead of next February’s elections including the killing of protesters and jailing journalists.
“Senegal experienced one of the most significant declines in civic space conditions in 2023 of any country in the world,” said Ine Van Severen. “Senegal used to be hailed as a beacon of relative openness and democracy in West Africa. That’s not the case anymore.”
There were marginal improvements in Benin, Lesotho and Madagascar which moved from ‘repressed’ to ‘obstructed’, although concerns in those countries persist. An ‘obstructed’ rating means civil society faces restrictions and authorities frequently silence independent voices like journalists. For the first time, CIVICUS Monitor separately assessed the civic space of Somaliland this year, rated ‘repressed.’
Globally, almost one third of humanity–30.6% of the world’s population–now lives in countries with ‘closed’ civic space, the most restrictive possible environment. This is the highest percentage since CIVICUS Monitor began tracking in 2018.
Meanwhile, just 2.1% of people live in ‘open’ countries, where civic space is both free and protected, the lowest percentage yet and almost half the rate of six years ago. Together, these findings point to a world facing a major civic space crisis requiring immediate, global efforts to reverse.
“We are witnessing an unprecedented global crackdown on civic space,” said CIVICUS Monitor lead researcher Marianna Belalba Barreto. “The world is nearing a tipping point where repression, already widespread, becomes dominant. Governments and world leaders must work urgently to reverse this downward path before it is too late.”
The CIVICUS Monitor documented more cases of detention of journalists than any other violation of civic space in Africa south of the Sahara in 2023. Intimidation, protest disruption, excessive use of force and attacks on journalists were also common.
A broad chunk of the continent, stretching from the Atlantic coast of Senegal to Somalia on the Indian Ocean, is almost entirely rated ‘repressed.’ Comprising the Sahel, Central Africa and the Horn, citizens in most of this massive area enjoy few civic freedoms.
Ongoing military coups worsened the situation. In Niger, for instance, a July coup was followed by repression of peaceful dissent including the arrest of renowned activist and journalist Samira Sabou. A referendum to remove presidential term limits in the Central African Republic coincided with intensified threats, intimidation, harassment and public vilification of government critics.
The East and Horn of Africa sub-region reported the highest number of incidents involving detention of journalists across the continent. Authorities in Somalia and Somaliland detained journalists throughout the year, while in war-torn Ethiopia journalists continue to be targeted for their conflict-related reporting.
Meanwhile, Uganda’s new anti-LGBTQI+ law drew worldwide condemnation, while the government shut down the UN High Commission for Human Rights’ operations in the country. In Kenya, rated ‘obstructed,’ police brutally crushed protests against the rising cost-of-living.
In Southern Africa, the 2023 murders of Lesotho investigative journalist Ralikonelo Jokland, South African human rights defender Jomo Keromeng and Eswatini human rights lawyer Thulani Maseko raise serious concern over the physical safety of people who speak out to try to affect change.
“While it is difficult to generalize about a continent as vast as Africa, the overall picture of the state of civic space is not positive,” said Ine Van Severen. “African civil society activists continue to bravely push back against repression, but they need global solidarity as well.”
