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Journalist in Mali Sentenced to a Year in Prison
A prominent Malian journalist was convicted under Mali’s cybercrime legislation for criticizing the use of that same law to silence another journalist. The verdict marks the latest escalation in the military junta’s widening assault on freedom of expression in the country.
Click to expand Image Chahana Takiou, Bamako, Mali, June 2026. © PrivateOn August 3, the national cybercrime court in Bamako, Mali’s capital, sentenced Chahana Takiou, editor of the biweekly 22 Septembre, to one year in prison.
Security forces arrested Takiou on June 8 after he publicly criticized the authorities for prosecuting a fellow journalist, Youssouf Sissoko, under the cybercrime law rather than Mali’s press laws. Sissoko was sentenced to two years in prison in June after he published an article critical of the military ruler of neighboring Niger.
Prosecutors charged Takiou with “undermining the credibility of the state through the judicial institution” and placed him in pretrial detention. Takiou’s lawyers, citing his diabetes and cardiovascular disease, requested provisional release on medical grounds, but the prosecutor rejected the request.
The day after Takiou’s arrest, the authorities arrested another journalist, Abdramane Keïta, director of the newspaper Le Témoin (The Witness), after he said on a television program that the Al-Qaeda-linked armed group Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wa al-Muslimeen (Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims, JNIM) controlled the northern city of Kidal. JNIM and allied Tuareg fighters recaptured Kidal in April following a three-year presence of Malian forces and Russian mercenaries. The authorities charged Keïta with “offense of a regionalist nature undermining national unity and the credibility of the state” and detained him pending a trial on August 17.
Takiou’s prosecution fits a broader pattern in Mali of using fabricated or politically motivated criminal charges to silence journalists, activists, opposition figures, and human rights defenders. Since seizing power in 2020, Mali’s military junta has steadily dismantled civic space. The authorities have banned media outlets, dissolved civil society organizations, abolished multiparty politics, and targeted dissidents through arbitrary arrests and enforced disappearances.
No one should face prison for peacefully expressing an opinion. Mali’s authorities should immediately release Takiou and Keïta, quash Takiou’s conviction, and drop all charges stemming solely from the peaceful exercise of freedom of expression. They should also do what Takiou suggested: end the misuse of cybercrime legislation to silence independent voices.
Fears Over Mail-in Ballot Access in the US
A coalition of voting rights organizations renewed a motion for preliminary injunction on July 20 in Massachusetts to prevent the United States Postal Service (USPS) from implementing parts of President Donald Trump’s Executive Order 14399.
The renewed motion is part of litigation challenging the order’s legality.
The order purports to combat election fraud by directing the Department of Homeland Security to compile and send states federal citizenship lists, requiring the USPS to develop a system for tracking mail-in ballots using unique barcodes, and prioritizing federal investigations of election fraud. Plaintiffs argue that these measures threaten voter access by creating unnecessary barriers. Some Democratic lawmakers argue that requiring states to share absentee voter data with the federal government also compromises voter privacy.
Per executive order directives, USPS submitted a proposed rule on June 2 requiring states to provide a list of eligible mail-in voters at least 60 days before federal elections and to limit mail-in ballot transmission to voters included on the list.
The proposed USPS rule could require USPS to withhold mail-in ballots from states deemed noncompliant, effectively preventing those ballots from reaching voters.
If the rule creates obstacles to mail-in ballots being delivered, this would disproportionately affect individuals with disabilities, older people, college students, US citizens abroad, rural communities, citizens with limited English proficiency, or those who cannot leave work to vote, as voting by mail is often their most practical, reliable, and rights-respecting method of participation.
As the 2026 midterms near, it is crucial that every eligible voter can participate in the poll on an equal basis with others.
Philippines: Revised Guidelines Threaten Indigenous Rights
(Manila) – The Philippine government’s revised national guidelines on free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC) threaten the rights of Indigenous communities, Human Rights Watch said today. Philippine authorities should align these guidelines with international human rights standards.
On May 1, 2026, the Philippine National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP), which issues rules and regulations related to the 1997 Indigenous Peoples Rights Act, announced that it had approved revised guidelines for projects affecting Indigenous communities. The guidelines were first issued in 2012 to ensure that Indigenous peoples could make decisions in accordance with their customary traditions about laws, policies, and projects that affect them.
“The National Commission on Indigenous Peoples’ revised guidelines would severely undermine the ability of Indigenous communities to provide free, prior, and informed consent for company projects in the Philippines,” said Lian Buan, Southeast Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The Philippine government has a duty to ensure that private corporations cannot bulldoze through the rights of Indigenous people.”
After the commission’s May 1 announcement, Indigenous groups and members of Congress urged the Commission to make publicly available its proposed revisions to the guidelines. Human Rights Watch has a copy on file.
The 2026 revised guidelines focus on the requirements of Indigenous communities to consider whether they will provide free, prior, and informed consent for private businesses activities. They impose shortened periods for Indigenous communities to build consensus for decisions, contrary to the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act, which puts primacy on customary traditions for reaching such decisions.
Under the 2012 guidelines, Indigenous communities have no stringent deadline for holding community assemblies. After community assemblies, they had up to two months to build consensus on their conditions for assent. The 2012 guidelines also do not impose a timeframe for negotiations over the memorandum of agreement to be signed with a company, which includes details on benefit-sharing and redress mechanisms.
The 2026 revised guidelines would require them to hold the assembly within 10 days after notification and 30 days to build consensus for large-scale projects. They provide only 4 days to hold a community assembly, and 7 for consensus building for small-scale projects. In some cases, the 2026 guidelines specify the format for decision-making, putting pressure on Indigenous communities and disregarding customary processes that may reasonably require more time.
“Indigenous communities have major disagreements with the new 2026 FPIC version,” said Raymond Marvic Baguilat, head of the Indigenous Peoples Law and Policy Program at the University of the Philippines Institute of Human Rights. “Did the government really give us our right to self-determination if the government set the standards and timelines?”
The 2012 guidelines also provided more safeguards to protect ancestral domain—a designation under Philippine law for territory used by Indigenous communities since time immemorial—and to assess possible effects on proposed projects on Indigenous peoples.
Previously, the Commission was required to conduct a field-based investigation to ensure that a proposed project area “patently and publicly” falls outside of ancestral domain and that the proposed activity is “determined not to affect” an ancestral domain, whether a title had already been granted to the community or not. Only then could the Commission issue a Certificate of Non-Overlap, a document that private businesses must have before starting activities in an area with Indigenous communities.
Under the revised guidelines, the Commission will consider property rights that existed prior to the enactment of the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act and may issue a Certificate of Non-Overlap without carrying out a field-based investigation to verify possible impacts on ancestral domain. These changes mean that the Commission can issue a certificate on the basis of documents showing vested property rights, without visiting the community and even if the project overlaps with an ancestral domain, Human Rights Watch said.
The Legal Rights and Natural Resources Center, a Philippine nongovernmental organization, stated that under the revised guidelines, “[a] mining permit holder may assert that the land is privately owned, obtain a [certificate] on the basis of that claim, and proceed with operations. By the time the affected community is able to establish that the area falls within their ancestral domain, mining activities may already be under way.”
The 2026 revised guidelines also remove avenues for redress for Indigenous communities who want to dispute permits and certificates for activities and projects that affect them.
The Commission is required to consult Congress before publishing and enforcing new rules and regulations. It should promptly discuss with Congress holding committee hearings on the revised guidelines, Human Rights Watch said.
Indigenous activists said that their communities were deeply concerned by the proposed changes and do not feel they were meaningfully consulted about the content or timeline for the adoption of these revisions.
Meaningful consultation would have involved facilitated discussion in every ethnographic region in languages that Indigenous communities understand, said Giovanni Reyes, president of the Philippine branch of Indigenous Peoples Community/Conserved Areas consortium. There was no such undertaking of “this full and effective participation … by the NCIP,” he said.
The Philippine government has obligations under international human rights law to protect the rights of Indigenous people.
The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples states that Indigenous peoples have the right to participate in decision-making in matters that would affect their rights, and that governments shall obtain their free, prior, and informed consent before adopting measures that may affect them. Additionally, the declaration provides that Indigenous peoples shall not be forcibly removed from their lands or territories. Although the declaration is not a binding treaty, the Philippines supported the declaration when the UN General Assembly adopted it in 2007.
In 2018, the UN Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples published a study on free, prior, and informed consent, based on an assessment of how the concept had been interpreted and applied by domestic courts, regional human rights courts, and UN human rights bodies. This assessment noted that among the concrete, constitutive elements needed, “[c]onsultation and participation should be undertaken at the conceptualization and design phases and not launched at a late stage in a project’s development, when crucial details have already been decided.”
The Philippine government should enable Indigenous communities to develop and enforce their own free, prior, and informed consent protocols, and provide avenues for redress when these protocols are not adhered to, including by government agencies, Human Rights Watch said.
“The National Commission on Indigenous Peoples should go back to the drawing board and ensure the participation of Indigenous peoples in the revision process,” Buan said. “The government needs to amend the rules so that Indigenous peoples have a genuine voice in decision-making.”
Uganda: Opposition Politician Tortured, Faces Abusive Charges
(Nairobi) – The Ugandan authorities have brought abusive criminal charges against an opposition politician, Muwanga Kivumbi, apparently based on his criticism of the president’s son, who is head of the armed forces, Human Rights Watch said today.
On July 29, 2026, the authorities charged Kivumbi, a deputy president of the National Unity Platform (NUP) Uganda’s main opposition party, with “inciting violence” and “managing an unlawful society,” after unlawfully detaining him for 19 days in an unrevealed location the day after he was released on bail for separate politically related charges. Kivumbi is one of several government critics that the military has in recent weeks arbitrarily seized, held incommunicado, and handed over to courts for abusive prosecutions.
Click to expand Image Muwanga Kivumbi. © NUP Media“Ugandan authorities are weaponizing the justice system to harass and target its critics and opposition,” said Ashwanee Budoo-Scholtz, deputy Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “The government needs to end these malicious prosecutions, and instead ensure accountability for the numerous rights abuses and scaling up of human rights violations in the country.”
On July 10, armed plainclothes and uniformed soldiers dragged him from his car at a police roadblock and drove off with him to an unrevealed location. On the morning of July 19, the soldiers left him at a police station in Kampala, media reported.
The police took him 66 kilometers away to a magistrate’s court in Butambala later that day, where they brought new charges against him. Based on the charge sheet, Kivumbi’s charges arise from a speech he made to his supporters at a public gathering in Butambala on the day of his initial release.
The authorities did not specify the basis for the charges in the charge sheet. But in a video of this speech, seen by Human Rights Watch, Kivumbi criticized President Museveni’s son, Muhoozi Kainerugaba, who is the chief of the Uganda Peoples’ Defence Force, for engaging in politics as a military officer.
During the July 29 court hearing, Kivumbi said that the security officers who abducted him blindfolded him and took him to a location he could not identify, where they held him for days in a small room, and kicked and beat him until he bled from his head. A witness who saw Kivumbi upon his release told Human Rights Watch that he had scars on his head, arms, legs, and back, apparently from the beatings.
The authorities had initially arrested Kivumbi on January 22, alongside scores of other National Unity Platform supporters around Uganda’s contested general elections on January 15, holding him until he was released on bail in July. Kivumbi had been running for a parliamentary seat during the elections which he lost.
The authorities who arrested Kivumbi in January accused him of orchestrating “a violent attack on Kibibi Police Station and Butambala Electoral Commission Tally Centre,” and causing “serious damage to sections of the Butambala-Gomba road” and multiple vehicles that “directly resulted into the deaths of seven people” on the days before and after election day. Kivumbi had rejected the allegation, saying security forces had raided his home on election day and shot and killed several members of his campaign team who were there.
The Agora Centre for Research, a Ugandan organization, reported that the armed forces killed at least seven people at Kivumbi’s home, including election officials, who had run into a garage for safety during the raid.
The Ugandan authorities should urgently and impartially investigate the circumstances of those killings and hold the those responsible to account, Human Rights Watch said.
Although Uganda’s Constitution guarantees the right to bail and prohibits arbitrary arrests and detention, security agencies frequently re-arrest people after courts have granted them bail, and courts have denied bail to other political opponents, extending their pretrial detention beyond maximum periods under Ugandan and international law.
In another such case, on July 29, a former presidential candidate, Kizza Besigye, who is on trial for treason and has been imprisoned since November 2024, collapsed during a court hearing and was hospitalized. The courts have previously denied him bail, despite requests by his family to have him released to allow him to receive private medical treatment.
On July 15, soldiers seized and unlawfully detained one of Besigye’s lawyers, Elias Lukwago, then sent him to pretrial detention on treason-related charges. The authorities later deported another of Besigye’s lawyers, Martha Karua, to Kenya on July 22. On July 30, the High Court denied Lukwago bail, which he had sought to receive medical treatment.
International human rights law requires any pretrial restrictions on criminal suspects to be consistent with the right to liberty, the presumption of innocence, and the right to equality under the law. The UN Human Rights Committee, the international body that provides authoritative analysis of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, has stated that pretrial detention imposed on suspects as punishment, among other reasons, is inconsistent with those rights.
Ugandan law criminalizes torture under the Prevention and Prohibition of Torture Act 2012, and the Human Rights (Enforcement) Act 2019 provides for personal liability for public officers who commit human rights violations.
“Kivumbi’s charges are only the latest in Uganda’s intensifying clampdown on critics of the government,” Budoo-Scholtz said. “The authorities should drop all criminal charges against him and ensure that all security officials implicated in his ill-treatment and enforced disappearance are held to account.”
Malaysia: Forcibly Returning Myanmar Refugees Risks Lives
(Bangkok) – The Malaysian government should reverse plans that would permit the forced return of refugees to Myanmar, where they face persecution and other rights abuses, Human Rights Watch said today.
On July 23, 2026, Malaysia’s deputy foreign minister informed parliament that 5,000 Myanmar nationals in immigration detention would be sent back to Myanmar. On July 29, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said that Myanmar authorities had agreed to take back 5,000 ethnic Rohingya.
“Malaysia has for many years hosted refugees from Myanmar who have fled unending oppression and atrocities by the Myanmar military,” said Bryony Lau, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The Malaysian government should show regional leadership in responding to the crisis in Myanmar rather than forcibly returning people who are the targets of the junta’s brutality.”
There are no authoritative figures on the number of Myanmar migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers in Malaysia. More than 215,000 refugees and asylum seekers are registered with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Malaysia, about 194,000 of them from Myanmar, including 126,000 ethnic Rohingya. For decades, UNHCR has processed asylum requests in Malaysia and provided successful applicants with cards recognizing them as refugees, but the cards do not grant legal status.
Recent announcements by Malaysian officials about UNHCR’s role and plans to send people back to Myanmar come amid surging immigration raids and xenophobic rhetoric that have fostered intense public hostility toward refugees and mistrust of UNHCR.
Malaysia has long lacked a legal framework for determining refugee status and all irregular entry and stay in the country is a criminal offense. Malaysian authorities strictly enforce immigration laws and do not distinguish among refugees, asylum seekers, trafficking victims, and undocumented migrants in conducting raids.
As of June 30, 22,166 people were in Malaysia’s immigration detention centers, about half of them from Myanmar, according to statistics provided by the home minister to Parliament.
On July 30, the home minister said that preparations were already underway to identify individuals who could be sent back through a new process to issue a Refugee Registration Document (Dokuman Pendaftaran Pelarian, or DPP), Malaysia’s new system for assessing asylum claims and registering refugees.
The government initiated the DPP system in January to take over responsibility for refugee registration from UNHCR and to improve oversight and minimize fake documentation. Refugees registered through the new system will be allowed to stay in Malaysia temporarily and will have the right to work, according to the terms of an unpublished directive by the National Security Council, known as MKN 23.
As of early July, Malaysian authorities had processed 128 Rohingya held in immigration detention through the DPP system, according to the home minister. Of those, 78 had been determined to be refugees, of whom 25 would be eligible to work. The minister did not explain what would happen to Rohingya who had not been granted refugee status.
Malaysian authorities have not indicated whether the system will comply with basic standards for refugee status determination, such as nondiscrimination, criteria grounded in international law, procedural integrity, strict confidentiality, data protection, and access to appeal, Human Rights Watch said.
As part of the rollout of the new system, the Malaysian government told UNHCR in July to temporarily stop registering refugees. The change further curtails UNHCR’s activities in Malaysia. Since 2019, the Malaysian government has denied UNHCR access to immigration detention centers, preventing the agency from reviewing asylum claims or assisting detainees who are registered refugees.
While Malaysia has not ratified the 1951 UN Refugee Convention or its 1967 protocol, it is still obligated to respect the international law principle of nonrefoulement, which prohibits countries from returning anyone to a place where they would face a real risk of persecution, torture or other serious ill-treatment, a threat to life, or other comparable serious human rights violations.
Since the February 2021 military coup in Myanmar, Malaysia has summarily deported thousands of asylum seekers to Myanmar without assessing their asylum claims or other protection needs and in violation of a Malaysian court order. In May 2024, UNHCR issued guidance stating that people fleeing Myanmar “are likely in need of international refugee protection.”
Conditions for safe, dignified, and voluntary return to Myanmar do not currently exist, Human Rights Watch said. The Myanmar military continues to commit war crimes and crimes against humanity. Junta authorities have arbitrarily arrested tens of thousands of people since the coup and thousands have died in custody.
Rohingya, as the largest ethnic group from Myanmar in Malaysia, have been the focus of public anger toward refugees. In late May, an online petition calling for the removal of Rohingya refugees, accompanied by a disinformation campaign, caused an escalation in hate speech and vigilante violence targeting Rohingya.
Rohingya have fled Myanmar to escape successive waves of atrocities against them by the Myanmar military. These atrocities include acts of genocide in 2017, the crime against humanity of apartheid, and more recent war crimes and other abuses by the ethnic Rakhine armed group, the Arakan Army, which has been fighting the Myanmar military for control of Rakhine State since late 2023. Myanmar’s denial of citizenship to Rohingya has left them especially vulnerable to human rights violations.
“The Malaysian government is fueling hostility towards refugees when it should be building support for and trust in its new refugee registration system,” Lau said. “People fleeing Myanmar have come to Malaysia seeking protection and should be able to stay while their asylum claims are fairly assessed, without living in fear of harassment, arrest, and forced return.”
Malaysia: Forcibly Returning Myanmar Refugees Risks Lives
(Bangkok) – The Malaysian government should reverse plans that would permit the forced return of refugees to Myanmar, where they face persecution and other rights abuses, Human Rights Watch said today.
On July 23, 2026, Malaysia’s deputy foreign minister informed parliament that 5,000 Myanmar nationals in immigration detention would be sent back to Myanmar. On July 29, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said that Myanmar authorities had agreed to take back 5,000 ethnic Rohingya.
“Malaysia has for many years hosted refugees from Myanmar who have fled unending oppression and atrocities by the Myanmar military,” said Bryony Lau, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The Malaysian government should show regional leadership in responding to the crisis in Myanmar rather than forcibly returning people who are the targets of the junta’s brutality.”
There are no authoritative figures on the number of Myanmar migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers in Malaysia. More than 215,000 refugees and asylum seekers are registered with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Malaysia, about 194,000 of them from Myanmar, including 126,000 ethnic Rohingya. For decades, UNHCR has processed asylum requests in Malaysia and provided successful applicants with cards recognizing them as refugees, but the cards do not grant legal status.
Recent announcements by Malaysian officials about UNHCR’s role and plans to send people back to Myanmar come amid surging immigration raids and xenophobic rhetoric that have fostered intense public hostility toward refugees and mistrust of UNHCR.
Malaysia has long lacked a legal framework for determining refugee status and all irregular entry and stay in the country is a criminal offense. Malaysian authorities strictly enforce immigration laws and do not distinguish among refugees, asylum seekers, trafficking victims, and undocumented migrants in conducting raids.
As of June 30, 22,166 people were in Malaysia’s immigration detention centers, about half of them from Myanmar, according to statistics provided by the home minister to Parliament.
On July 30, the home minister said that preparations were already underway to identify individuals who could be sent back through a new process to issue a Refugee Registration Document (Dokuman Pendaftaran Pelarian, or DPP), Malaysia’s new system for assessing asylum claims and registering refugees.
The government initiated the DPP system in January to take over responsibility for refugee registration from UNHCR and to improve oversight and minimize fake documentation. Refugees registered through the new system will be allowed to stay in Malaysia temporarily and will have the right to work, according to the terms of an unpublished directive by the National Security Council, known as MKN 23.
As of early July, Malaysian authorities had processed 128 Rohingya held in immigration detention through the DPP system, according to the home minister. Of those, 78 had been determined to be refugees, of whom 25 would be eligible to work. The minister did not explain what would happen to Rohingya who had not been granted refugee status.
Malaysian authorities have not indicated whether the system will comply with basic standards for refugee status determination, such as nondiscrimination, criteria grounded in international law, procedural integrity, strict confidentiality, data protection, and access to appeal, Human Rights Watch said.
As part of the rollout of the new system, the Malaysian government told UNHCR in July to temporarily stop registering refugees. The change further curtails UNHCR’s activities in Malaysia. Since 2019, the Malaysian government has denied UNHCR access to immigration detention centers, preventing the agency from reviewing asylum claims or assisting detainees who are registered refugees.
While Malaysia has not ratified the 1951 UN Refugee Convention or its 1967 protocol, it is still obligated to respect the international law principle of nonrefoulement, which prohibits countries from returning anyone to a place where they would face a real risk of persecution, torture or other serious ill-treatment, a threat to life, or other comparable serious human rights violations.
Since the February 2021 military coup in Myanmar, Malaysia has summarily deported thousands of asylum seekers to Myanmar without assessing their asylum claims or other protection needs and in violation of a Malaysian court order. In May 2024, UNHCR issued guidance stating that people fleeing Myanmar “are likely in need of international refugee protection.”
Conditions for safe, dignified, and voluntary return to Myanmar do not currently exist, Human Rights Watch said. The Myanmar military continues to commit war crimes and crimes against humanity. Junta authorities have arbitrarily arrested tens of thousands of people since the coup and thousands have died in custody.
Rohingya, as the largest ethnic group from Myanmar in Malaysia, have been the focus of public anger toward refugees. In late May, an online petition calling for the removal of Rohingya refugees, accompanied by a disinformation campaign, caused an escalation in hate speech and vigilante violence targeting Rohingya.
Rohingya have fled Myanmar to escape successive waves of atrocities against them by the Myanmar military. These atrocities include acts of genocide in 2017, the crime against humanity of apartheid, and more recent war crimes and other abuses by the ethnic Rakhine armed group, the Arakan Army, which has been fighting the Myanmar military for control of Rakhine State since late 2023. Myanmar’s denial of citizenship to Rohingya has left them especially vulnerable to human rights violations.
“The Malaysian government is fueling hostility towards refugees when it should be building support for and trust in its new refugee registration system,” Lau said. “People fleeing Myanmar have come to Malaysia seeking protection and should be able to stay while their asylum claims are fairly assessed, without living in fear of harassment, arrest, and forced return.”
Rapid Returns Follow Migrant Crossings to Ceuta
The arrival of an estimated 50,000 to 60,000 people in Ceuta, Spain’s enclave in North Africa, on July 30-31 was not only unprecedented but also tragic. At least 72 people died, including many who drowned while trying to swim from Morocco to Ceuta and others who were crushed while trying to climb a border barrier, according to Spanish authorities.
Most who crossed were Moroccan, with some from Sudan, Yemen, and several West and North African countries, the Moroccan Association for Human Rights (AMDH) reported. Many reportedly sought to migrate for economic reasons, but some were asylum seekers, including people who had fled the conflict in Sudan.
By August 2, most who crossed into Ceuta had returned to Morocco. The Spanish government said returns were voluntary, but AMDH, which spoke with some returnees, said that Spanish security forces carried out “mass pushbacks” without individual assessments. The group also alleged that some Ceuta residents used violence against people arriving and that Spanish and Moroccan forces used unnecessary force against people arriving in Ceuta or attempting to leave the Moroccan border town of Ben Ensar.
The borders of Ceuta and Melilla, Spain’s other North African enclave, are among the most fortified external European Union borders. They have long been the site of violence or excessive force by both Moroccan and Spanish security forces and collective expulsions by Spanish authorities. At least 15 people died in waters off Ceuta in 2014 when the Spanish Guardia Civil shot rubber bullets and tear gas at people attempting to swim to Spanish territory. At least 23 African men died in June 2022 at the Melilla-Morocco border amid the use of force and riot control tactics on both sides.
Moroccan and Spanish authorities should ensure that independent and impartial investigations are conducted into the circumstances surrounding the crossings to Ceuta and allegations of excessive force. They should also prioritize humane treatment and humanitarian assistance to people who arrived in Ceuta, returnees in Morocco, and others who attempted to leave.
Spanish authorities should uphold the rights of those remaining in Ceuta by individually assessing health and protection needs and ensuring access to asylum procedures.
On both sides of the border, it’s critical to ensure that any use of force is strictly necessary and proportionate. Summary expulsions are wrong, regardless of how people arrive.
Still No Accountability for Zimbabwe’s 2018 Abuses
Eight years on, justice is still elusive for the families of 6 people killed and the 35 injured by Zimbabwe state security forces during the August 1, 2018, protests.
Witnesses at the time told Human Rights Watch that military officers and anti-riot police used excessive and lethal force against people who were protesting delayed election results on the streets of Harare, the capital. Security forces indiscriminately fired live ammunition at protesters and bystanders. Among the dead was Sylvia Maposa, a 53-year-old mother of two whom soldiers fatally shot in the back when she was heading home from work that afternoon.
The following day, President Emmerson Mnangagwa called for an independent investigation into the killings and said: “those responsible should be identified and brought to justice.”
Mnangagwa later appointed a commission, known as the Motlanthe Commission of Inquiry, to investigate the violence and make recommendations. Eight years later, Mnangagwa has not implemented the commission’s recommendations, including completing investigations to hold responsible members of the military and police to account.
No security personnel have been arrested or prosecuted, nor has any compensation been provided. Since the August 2018 protest, the government has taken few concrete steps to demonstrate commitment to accountability, justice, and respect for the rule of law. This culture of impunity has bred an atmosphere of governmental abuse and violence. During three days of demonstrations throughout Zimbabwe in January 2019 to protest a fuel price increase, security forces fired live ammunition, killing 17 people, and raped at least 17 women.
Since assuming power in a military coup in 2017, the Mnangagwa administration has committed serious human rights violations and shown a failure or unwillingness to institute lasting human rights reforms. Violence, intimidation, harassment, and repression aimed principally at opposition party members, journalists, students, and civil society activists have severely restricted civic and political space.
Zimbabwe authorities should demonstrate respect for human rights and the rule of law by acting on the recommendations of Motlanthe commission without any further delay and start breaking the country’s cycle of impunity.
DR Congo Official Confirms Oil Pollution Findings
A representative of the Congolese Ministry of Hydrocarbons, during an on-the-record interview with Human Rights Watch on July 31, discussed the findings of the government's official environmental audit into the activities of Perenco, the French-British oil and gas company operating in western Democratic Republic of Congo.
The audit identified “negative impacts on soil and air quality” linked to oil operations, the ministry official said, adding that “all aspects of pollution will be addressed” in the final report.
Following longstanding allegations of pollution, the government commissioned the audit in December 2024.
Human Rights Watch released a report on July 27 documenting serious health risks for communities living near Perenco's operations, linking the company’s activities to pollution of air, soil, and water sources. Human Rights Watch found that routine gas flaring and the open burning of oil waste in close proximity to residential areas in western Congo degraded air quality, while oil spills from wells and pipelines polluted surrounding soils and riverbeds. Human Rights Watch also found that Perenco engaged in practices that violate Congolese environmental law, notably the open burning of oil waste. At the time of publication, the Ministry of Hydrocarbons had not commented on the research findings.
Perenco, in response to queries from Human Rights Watch, denied that its operations “would cause air, soil and water pollution or detrimental acute health conditions.” However, the ministry official said the preliminary findings of the audit “corroborate Human Rights Watch’s conclusions.”
In response to questions regarding the source of the pollution, the official highlighted that “the ageing of Perenco’s infrastructure and pipelines” contributes to soil pollution. The official said the final audit will recommend infrastructure upgrades, estimate environmental remediation costs, and propose measures to repair environmental damage.
While groundwater sampling is still underway, the audit has entered its final phase, according to the Ministry of Hydrocarbons. The final audit is expected to be completed by the end of September.
The ministry official said the report “will be made public” once finalized. “The government is committed to full transparency regarding this audit.”
Human Rights Watch has repeatedly called on the Congolese government to publish the audit's findings.
Robust Guidelines for EU Companies Vital to Accountability Law
On July 23, Human Rights Watch filed a written submission to the European Commission on the European Union’s landmark corporate accountability law, the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive.
The European Commission is currently formulating guidance on how companies should implement the law, which requires businesses to identify and address human rights risks in their operations and supply chains.
The passage of the law in 2024 was a key step in the fight to tackle corporate abuses in the global operations of large companies. High profile cases where corporate failings contributed to huge loss of life —such as the 2013 Rana Plaza factory collapse in Bangladesh, in which 1,138 garment workers died, and the 2019 Brumadinho mine dam disaster in Brazil, which buried communities and killed 270 people—have shown the need for binding laws requiring companies to respect human rights.
Strong European Commission guidance on how businesses should implement the law is vital given companies’ successful efforts to weaken key provisions and limit its scope. Lobbying by European and US companies, especially the fossil fuel industry, contributed to European lawmakers and member states gutting key elements of the law in December 2025, reducing the number of companies covered and delaying until July 2029 for the law to become binding for companies.
The European Commission’s current short nine-week window for accepting input on the guidelines on how to implement the law, and the requirement that submissions follow a detailed questionnaire, with severe word limits, restricts meaningful feedback.
Human Rights Watch’s submission underscores the importance of companies establishing accessible and safe ways to consult with unions, workers, and local civil society organizations on the risks linked to their businesses, which could range from child and forced labor in factories to harmful pollution related to key materials in their products.
It also emphasizes that, if human rights abuses do occur, companies need to develop proportionate and prompt remedies for victims, tailored to the needs and perspectives of those affected.
The EU’s landmark corporate accountability law is a vital new tool for tackling corporate human rights abuses. The European Commission’s guidelines should ensure that the law lives up to its potential by setting a high bar requiring companies to protect the rights of workers and communities in global supply chains.
Terror na Amazônia
No dia 3 de agosto de 2020, começou um pesadelo para indígenas e ribeirinhos que moravam em comunidades às margens do rio Abacaxis, na Amazônia. Naquele dia, três barcos particulares chegaram à cidade de Nova Olinda do Norte transportando dez policiais militares do estado do Amazonas à paisana; dez dias antes, alguém havia atirado contra um barco que pescava ilegalmente na região. Um secretário estadual , que estava a bordo, teria sofrido um ferimento leve. Testemunhas afirmaram que ele prometeu voltar para se vingar.
As coisas não saíram como planejado.
Houve um tiroteio em uma das comunidades ribeirinhas, e dois policiais foram mortos. Segundo moradores locais, aqueles que efetuaram os disparos não sabiam que os homens nos barcos eram policiais. As autoridades do estado do Amazonas apresentaram uma versão diferente, alegando que um grupo de traficantes de drogas havia emboscado a polícia.
Em resposta, o estado enviou 50 policiais militares. Moradores relataram que, nas semanas seguintes, os policiais passaram de comunidade em comunidade, queimando casas, torturando e matando pelo menos seis pessoas. Outras duas continuam desaparecidas até o momento e são consideradas mortas.
Na época, um procurador da República e a Human Rights Watch alertaram que estavam ocorrendo graves abusos, mas as autoridades estaduais e a Polícia Federal não atuaram para impedi-los.
Seis anos depois, ninguém foi responsabilizado. A Human Rights Watch enviou uma carta aos relatores da Organização das Nações Unidas e à Comissão Interamericana de Direitos Humanos em 3 de agosto de 2026, instando-os a pressionar as autoridades brasileiras a garantir justiça e a proteger as vítimas e os ativistas locais.
A carta menciona o caso de um líder comunitário que afirmou que policiais o espancaram repetidamente na presença do então comandante da Polícia Militar do Amazonas. Eles também colocaram um saco plástico em sua cabeça e ameaçaram cortar seus órgãos genitais com um canivete, lembrou ele.
Por fim, os policiais o soltaram com uma advertência: “se falar, tu vai morrer”. Mesmo assim, ele denunciou a tortura á Polícia Federal.
Sua coragem, e a de outras testemunhas — incluindo um pai que relatou como os policiais colocaram seu filho de seis anos dentro de um freezer —, levou o Ministério Público Federal a apresentar denúncias em 2024 e 2025 contra o ex-secretário de Segurança Pública do Amazonas e 12 policiais.
Atualmente, os processos continuam paralisados devido a uma disputa jurídica sobre qual tribunal tem jurisdição para conduzir os julgamentos. Enquanto isso, os sobreviventes vivem com medo.
Terror in the Amazon
A nightmare for Indigenous people and other communities on the Abacaxis riverbanks in the Brazilian Amazon began on August 3, 2020. That day, three private boats arrived in the town of Nova Olinda do Norte carrying ten undercover military police officers from the state of Amazonas; ten days earlier, someone had shot at a boat illegally fishing in the area. A senior state official, who was aboard, allegedly suffered a minor injury. Witnesses said he vowed to return in force.
Things did not go as planned.
A shootout erupted near one of the riverside communities, and two officers were killed. According to local residents, those who opened fire did not know the men on the boats were police officers. Amazonas state authorities offered a different account, claiming that a drug trafficking group had ambushed the police.
In response, the state deployed 50 military police officers. Residents reported that, over the following weeks, officers moved from community to community, burning homes, torturing and killing at least six residents. Another two are still missing today and presumed dead.
At the time, a federal prosecutor and Human Rights Watch warned that serious abuses were taking place, but state authorities and the federal police failed to stop them.
Six years later, no one has been held accountable. Human Rights Watch sent a letter to United Nations rapporteurs and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights on August 3, 2026, urging them to press Brazilian authorities to ensure justice and to protect victims and local activists.
The letter includes the case of a community leader who said officers repeatedly beat him in front of the then-commander of the Amazonas Military Police. They also put a plastic bag over his head and threatened to cut his genitals with a knife, he recalled.
Eventually, the officers released him with a warning: “If you talk, you’ll die.” And yet, he reported the torture to federal police.
His courage, and that of other witnesses—including a father who recounted how officers placed his six-year-old child in a freezer—led federal prosecutors to file charges in 2024 and 2025 against the former secretary of public security of Amazonas and 12 police officers.
Today, the cases remain stalled because of a legal dispute over which court has jurisdiction to conduct the trials. Meanwhile, survivors live in fear.
Afghanistan: Taliban Assault on Rights Deepens 5 Years on
(New York) – Afghanistan’s Taliban have entrenched one of the world’s worst human rights crises and systematically dismantled the rights of women and girls since taking power five years ago, Human Rights Watch said today, releasing a timeline of abuses over the last five years. Afghanistan is also facing a severe humanitarian crisis with nearly 40 percent of the population in urgent need of assistance.
Since capturing Kabul on August 15, 2021, Taliban authorities have imposed sweeping restrictions on women’s rights to work, movement, and participation in public life as part of a broader system aimed at social control and curbing any dissent. The Taliban’s morality police have raided workplaces, surveilled public spaces, and arbitrarily arrested women for alleged violations of dress code rules. Afghanistan remains the only country in the world where girls are barred from education beyond the sixth grade.
Afghanistan: 5 Years Under Taliban RuleAugust 15, 2026 will mark five years since the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan. Over the last five years, the Taliban’s increasingly draconian policies have made Afghanistan one of the world’s gravest human rights crises, particularly for women and girls.
A Human Rights Crisis, a Humanitarian Crisis“The fifth anniversary of the Taliban takeover is a grim marker of the devastating costs of impunity,” said Fereshta Abbasi, Afghanistan researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Governments should move beyond statements of concern and press for justice for serious crimes in Afghanistan, including the crime against humanity of gender persecution.”
The Taliban’s most recent laws have further codified repression. On January 4, 2026, the Taliban issued a criminal procedure code that defines Muslims exclusively as adherents of Hanafi jurisprudence and labels other religious groups, including Shia Muslims, as heretics. It prescribes strict punishments to silence dissent. A new Preachers Law further tightens control over religious expression, requiring religious clergy to adhere only to Hanafi jurisprudence. Both these provisions embed discrimination on the basis of religion in Afghanistan’s legal framework.
The criminal procedure code now recognizes only “excessive” beating as domestic violence against women, leaving survivors of other forms of abuse with no pathways to justice, further dismantling legal protections for women and girls. A decree on judicial separation of spouses eliminates minimum-age protections for the marriage of girls, increasing the risk of child marriage.
The authorities have also intensified restrictions on free expression and censored local media outlets. Journalists, women’s rights defenders, civil society activists, academics, artists, and other critics have faced repression, arbitrary arrest, torture, and other ill-treatment.
Afghanistan’s humanitarian crisis has deepened as donor governments have cut assistance. More than 17 million people, 40 percent of the population, are projected to face acute food insecurity, while the United Nations Humanitarian Response Plan remains severely underfunded. Sharp reductions in foreign aid from the United States, as well as cuts by the United Kingdom and other donors, have forced humanitarian organizations to reduce programs and scale back their services. The Taliban restrictions on female aid workers, including the requirement that they must be accompanied by a male guardian, have further restricted women’s access to livelihoods and humanitarian assistance.
Iran and Pakistan have forced millions of Afghans to return to the country. Since resuming deportation flights in August 2024, Germany has actively pursued increased deportations to Afghanistan despite the serious risks that returned Afghans continue to face. On June 22, European Union officials hosted a Taliban delegation for the first time in Brussels to discuss migration issues. No government should forcibly return any Afghan who would face the threat of persecution, arbitrary detention, torture, or other serious harm.
Renewed cross-border attacks with Pakistan have caused hundreds of civilian casualties. On March 16, a Pakistani airstrike on the Omid Drug Rehabilitation Center in Kabul killed at least 269 civilians and injured more than 122, according to the UN.
On October 6, 2025, the UN Human Rights Council adopted a landmark resolution creating an independent mechanism to investigate past and ongoing rights abuses in Afghanistan by all groups, including former government and international forces. Governments should ensure that the new mechanism becomes fully operational and has the resources it needs to fulfill its mandate, while supporting other accountability efforts, including the International Criminal Court investigation and national proceedings under universal jurisdiction.
“Afghans, especially women and girls, have endured five years of repression and abuse,” Abbasi said. “The international response should finally match the scale of the crisis by halting deportations to Afghanistan, protecting at-risk Afghans, and sustaining humanitarian funding for Afghanistan.”
Thailand: Investigate Online Attacks Against Rights Defenders
(Bangkok) – The Thai authorities should immediately take effective measures to protect the prominent members of parliament Angkhana Neelapaijit and Romadon Panjor and the human rights defender Anchana Heemmina, all of whom have been facing online death threats and attacks, Human Rights Watch said today.
On July 31, 2026, Angkhana, a senator and former member of Thailand’s National Human Rights Commission, filed a complaint with the Bangkok police under the Computer-Related Crime Act that numerous posts on social media accused her of being unpatriotic and sympathetic to the separatist group Barisan Revolusi Nasional (National Revolutionary Front or BRN). Some posts said she should be killed or disappeared. Similar disinformation and hate campaigns were posted on social media against Anchana, founder of the Duay Jai human rights group, and Romadon, a member of parliament from the opposition People’s Party.
“The Thai authorities should urgently and impartially investigate online attacks, including death threats, against Angkhana, Anchana, and Romadon, who have been widely recognized for their work defending human rights in Thailand’s deep south,” said Elaine Pearson, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Those responsible for serious threats should be brought to justice, regardless of their affiliation, to demonstrate Thailand’s commitment to protecting human rights defenders.”
Online attacks against Angkhana, Anchana, and Romadon have intensified since the insurgent attack in Ra Ngae district, Narathiwat province, on July 22 that killed five soldiers and injured six civilians. Some of the abusive social media posts come from accounts allegedly affiliated with the Thai government’s information operations. In June, the court of appeal ordered the Internal Security Operations Command to pay Angkhana and Anchana compensation for damages caused by smear campaigns.
People who speak out for human rights in Thailand’s deep south—the predominantly Muslim Malay provinces of Pattani, Yala, and Narathiwat, plus Songkhla—where the Thai government has fought the BRN insurgency since January 2004, face grave dangers, Human Rights Watch said. Online attacks appear to have led to real life violence.
In March 2004, Angkhana’s husband, human rights lawyer Somchai Neelapaijit, was abducted and his body has never been found. Substantial evidence implicated a group of police officers, who allegedly sought retaliation for Somchai’s involvement in lawsuits regarding widespread police torture of Muslim suspects in the deep south.
Over the past 22 years, there have been numerous attacks, including harassment, threats, assaults, enforced disappearances, killings, and unjust prosecutions targeting human rights defenders in the deep south. None of these cases have been successfully resolved by the Thai authorities, including the assassination attempt on Kamonsak Leewamoh, a Muslim member of parliament and prominent human rights lawyer in Narathiwat province in April 2026. The authorities issued arrest warrants for three former military personnel.
Human Rights Watch stated in its submission to the 53rd session of the United Nations Universal Periodic Review of Thailand’s human rights record, scheduled for November, that successive Thai governments have failed to uphold their obligations to ensure human rights defenders can carry out their work in a safe and enabling environment, in line with the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders. In November 2025, UN human rights experts expressed concern about reports of death threats and online attacks against Angkhana and the Human Rights Watch Thailand senior adviser Sunai Phasuk as a result of their comments regarding possible international humanitarian law violations during the Thailand-Cambodia border conflict.
Thailand became a member of the UN Human Rights Council in 2025 and is expected to “uphold the highest standards in the protection and promotion of human rights.”
Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul should commit to addressing attacks on human rights defenders and ensure that complaints of threats and harassment are swiftly and independently investigated. The Thai government should send a clear message that threats of violence will not be tolerated, Human Rights Watch said.
“Concerned governments and UN agencies should press Prime Minister Anutin to hold accountable those who threaten or attack human rights defenders,” Pearson said. “Thailand should show the world that it has earned its UN Human Rights Council membership.”
Israeli Defense Ministry Plan Suggests Potential War Crimes
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz instructed the Israeli military on July 28 to take control of another Palestinian refugee camp in the West Bank without identifying which one. He has said the operation should follow the “Tulkarem, Nur Shams and Jenin model.”
Those words indicate more expulsion of Palestinians from their homes and so more potential ethnic cleansing and war crimes.
The Israeli army expelled the residents of Tulkarem, Nur Shams, and Jenin refugee camps in January and February 2025 during Operation Iron Wall, a brutal, and sometimes lethal, operation by the military that resulted in the largest mass displacement of Palestinians in the West Bank since 1967. Katz said the displacement would last one year. But twenty months later, according to the United Nations, more than 33,000 Palestinian refugees remain displaced from the homes in the refugee camps they were living in two years ago.
The Israeli military continues to forbid all access to the camps, denying these refugees the right to return to their homes. Scattered across the West Bank, the refugees are forced to rent accommodations, stay with relatives, or seek temporary housing from charitable organizations. Not only have the camps been emptied but the Israeli military has also systematically demolished residential homes and buildings to make way for a new network of widened roads and access ways, purportedly for “military necessity.”
Human Rights Watch found in November 2025 that these acts of forced displacement amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Through our investigation of Operation Iron Wall, Human Rights Watch identified senior officials who should be investigated and appropriately prosecuted for these war crimes and crimes against humanity, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz. Despite the wealth of evidence amassed, Israeli authorities have neither investigated their military's abusive conduct nor have concerned foreign governments imposed any consequences for the atrocities committed.
This lack of accountability sends the deeply concerning message that grave crimes can be perpetrated with impunity. Governments should urgently act to prevent the potential forced displacement of more Palestinian refugees, including by imposing targeted sanctions on those implicated in ongoing grave abuses, suspending arms transfers to Israel, banning trade with illegal settlements, considering suspending preferential trade agreements with Israel, and supporting the International Criminal Court and its ongoing investigations, including by executing its arrest warrants.
Katz’s announcement shows that when serious international crimes go unpunished, they can happen again.
Mali: Russia’s ‘Africa Corps’ Airstrikes Kill Civilians
(Nairobi, July 31, 2026) – The Russian government-controlled Africa Corps carried out airstrikes in central Mali on June 15, 2026, that killed eight civilians, including three children, in an apparently unlawful attack, Human Rights Watch said today.
That morning, an aircraft identified by two Malian military sources as a Sukhoi Su-24, dropped at least two munitions on Kyrnia village, Mopti region. The first struck outside the village chief’s residence, killing two of his children, his wife, and another child, and injuring a woman. The second struck a small cattle market about twenty meters away, killing four men and injuring two others. No Islamist armed group fighters were known to be casualties.
“Russian government-controlled Africa Corps aircraft have killed civilians in a Malian village in seeming disregard for the laws of war,” said Ilaria Allegrozzi, senior Sahel researcher at Human Rights Watch. “By handing the Russian authorities a blank check, the Malian government should be aware that it too is accountable for allied forces’ atrocities.”
Human Rights Watch remotely interviewed 19 people between June 24 and July 14, including 6 witnesses, civil society members, community leaders, Malian military sources, and local journalists. Human Rights Watch also analyzed satellite imagery of the locations of the strikes, a video of the strikes that the Africa Corps placed online, and photographs that an Islamist armed group posted on social media. On July 22, Human Rights Watch sent a letter to the Russian defense minister, summarizing its findings and posing several questions, but received no response.
On June 23, the Africa Corps reported on its Facebook and X accounts that on June 15 it had carried out a successful airstrike on a “gathering place of terrorist groups” in the Mopti region, killing several “field commanders,” and published a video of the strikes and aftermath. Human Rights Watch geolocated the two strikes from the video to Kyrnia.
The Al-Qaeda-linked Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin, or JNIM) has controlled Kyrnia for the past six years. Witnesses said at least 100 JNIM fighters, including a senior commander, were in the village at the time of the strikes but had gathered mainly at the village mosque and outside a shop near a small cattle market. While neither the mosque nor shop was struck, one munition hit the cattle market. JNIM has occasionally stored weapons, ammunition, fuel, and other material at the store, which is owned by the village chief, a wealthy trader. A pickup truck, similar to vehicles the JNIM commonly uses, was parked outside the chief’s home.
Since 2012, successive governments in Mali have battled Islamist armed groups. After military coups in 2020 and 2021, the junta leader, Gen. Assimi Goïta, expelled French and United Nations forces and strengthened ties with Russia. Since 2021, the junta has relied on the Russia-linked Wagner Group for security assistance. The mercenary group was rebranded as the Africa Corps after the Wagner Group founder, Yevgeny Prigozhin, died in 2023, and came under Moscow’s direct control.
The Russian foreign ministry acknowledged in June that Russian military personnel were working with the Malian armed forces to ensure full control over Malian territory after JNIM attacks across the country on April 25. The Russian Defense Ministry said that its forces used Su-24s to strike militants.
Based on media reports and satellite imagery, the Africa Corps has deployed Su-24 aircraft in Mali since at least April 2025 in support of the Malian military. There is no public record of transfer of Su-24s to Malian authorities. These aircraft can carry an array of large, air-delivered munitions, including guided weapons, that are consistent with the damage caused by the munitions that struck Kyrnia.
Witnesses said they saw a fighter jet flying low over Kyrnia and making a deafening noise. “It was a fighter jet, very fast ... it flew low ... from west to east,” said a 35-year-old trader. “I saw it dropping a bomb ... like a fireball ... and I ran for cover under a tree.”
A cowherder, 37, said he had been sitting at the cattle market when he heard a loud rumbling sound, followed by an explosion. He saw thick black smoke rise from houses near the chief’s home, then a second explosion. “The market was a mess,” he said, “stalls blown apart over several meters, and shredded cows and sheep.” He helped clear the rubble from the chief’s collapsed home alongside other residents, while JNIM fighters coordinated rescue efforts. “The chief's second wife was dead, and she had lost … her arms,” he said. “Then [we found] the [bodies of the] two children ... and another boy who had been thrown by the explosion on the roof.”
Analysis of the Africa Corps video and of satellite imagery from June 25 by Human Rights Watch shows two craters in the southern part of Kyrnia, each about 12 meters wide, indicating two large, air-delivered munitions. About nine market stalls, visible on satellite imagery from February 7, appear to have been destroyed by the second strike. The strike outside the chief’s residence fell between structures, causing at least one building to collapse.
Click to expand Image Screenshot of an Africa Corps video and satellite imagery from June 25, 2026, show two craters in the southern part of Kyrnia, each about 12 meters wide, indicating two large, air-delivered munitions. Image © 2026 Planet Labs PBC. Graphics © 2026 Human Rights WatchA camel breeder, 48, said he was “thrown [to the ground] by the blast of the first explosion,” and discovered he was “covered in sand and debris.… [P]eople in front of me were injured, some had broken arms.”
A 40-year-old man said he identified “the bodies of three merchants,” hit “as they rode their three-wheeled vehicle loaded with bags of dates” through the cattle market.
The second strike injured three men, including one who died the following day. A witness said the man had been struck by bomb fragments and “[h]is arms had been torn apart.”
Human Rights Watch reviewed a list with the names of the eight victims, including three children ages 1 to 10, a 24-year-old woman, and four men ages 30 to 40.
Witnesses said that on June 14, a drone presumably operated by the Malian armed forces or the Africa Corps flew over Kyrnia, suggesting the village was under surveillance. “I saw a drone in the sky the day before, between 4 and 5 p.m.,” said the camel breeder. “It made several rounds over the village before leaving.”
Witnesses said about 100 JNIM fighters were in the village at the time of the strikes, most at the mosque, about 150 meters from the strike sites. A man, 40, said that at the mosque, some JNIM fighters were on motorcycles. “They were armed with automatic weapons and dressed in military uniforms or boubous [robes], with their faces covered with turbans,” he said. The trader also said that numerous JNIM fighters and a prominent commander were in or outside the village chief’s shop, located at the cattle market struck by the second munition.
The strikes occurred on a market day, when Kyrnia was crowded with traders, buyers, and villagers. Residents said that since JNIM took control of the area, Kyrnia has become a commercial hub with a large livestock market.
Residents said that JNIM purchased supplies, including fuel and food, from Kyrnia’s market. They said airstrikes may have targeted the village chief’s residence because of his pickup truck, similar to those used by JNIM, was parked outside. They also said three of the chief’s sons are JNIM fighters, but were not in Kyrnia during the attack.
The laws of war applicable to the armed conflict in Mali prohibit attacks that target civilians and civilian objects, that do not discriminate between civilians and combatants, or that are expected to harm civilians or civilian property that is disproportionate to any anticipated military advantage.
Warring parties carrying out attacks are obligated to take all feasible precautions to minimize loss of civilian life. Parties should avoid deploying in densely populated areas. The strikes in Kyrnia did not appear to target specific military objectives, which would make them unlawfully indiscriminate. The fact that the village chief did business with the JNIM would not make him subject to attack. Human Rights Watch uncovered no information that the chief’s home was then being used to store arms or ammunition.
The Malian government has an obligation to investigate the incident and hold accountable those responsible for laws-of-war violations, including Africa Corps members.
“The Malian government cannot hide behind laws-of-war violations committed by their Russian allies,” Allegrozzi said. “The junta has to impartially investigate all possible war crimes committed on their territory, including the airstrikes in Kyrnia, or be held complicit in abuses.”
Australia School Photos Scraped for AI-Fueled Image Misuse
Australia’s eSafety commissioner issued an advisory on July 28 urging schools to review how they share images online, citing a rise in the misuse of school photos. Between January and March 2026, the commissioner received over 100 reports concerning anonymous accounts targeting schools and school staff through misuse of images taken from official school websites and social media accounts. Much of the content, shared on platforms including TikTok and Instagram, involved artificial intelligence (AI)-generated materials depicting both children and school staff, including sexualized deepfake images, face swaps, and other manipulated imagery.
In 2024, Human Rights Watch documented that the personal photos of Australian children, including images posted by schools, had been scraped and used to train AI models. In addition to privacy risks, these practices enable the creation of convincing deepfakes, including sexualized imagery of children, which put children at even more risk of exploitation and harm.
Once online, images shared by schools can be rapidly manipulated and distributed. Photos in data sets used to train AI models can also reveal information that could identify children, including names, events, locations, and schedules. This could expose children to lasting harm, as both the original images and malicious deepfakes created from them can remain accessible indefinitely.
Australia has been considering stronger child data protections rules through the government’s proposed Children’s Online Privacy Code. The draft code, published in March, is expected to be finalized later this year. This code is a critical opportunity to strengthen protections for children’s personal information and require companies to act in children’s best interests in accordance with international human rights law.
The cases highlighted by eSafety underscore the growing risks of a regulatory environment that does not explicitly prohibit the scraping and reuse of children’s images and personal data. As the government moves towards finalizing the code, it should ensure that it explicitly prohibits the scraping of children’s photos and personal data for AI training. It should also prohibit the digital replication or manipulation of children’s likenesses.
Children should not have to worry that photographs shared online by their schools will be scraped, manipulated, and turned into harmful content beyond their control. Australia should make it clear as a matter of law that children’s images are not raw material for AI models.
Vietnam: Quash Conviction of Social Media Commentator
(Bangkok) – The Vietnamese authorities should immediately quash the criminal conviction of a prominent commentator on social media and release her, Human Rights Watch said today.
On July 29, 2026, a court in Hanoi convicted Hoang Thi Hong Thai and sentenced her to six years in prison. Hanoi police had arrested her on January 7 for comments she made on social media criticizing the Vietnamese government and charged her with anti-state propaganda under article 117 of the penal code.
“Hoang Thi Hong Thai should never have been prosecuted for speaking out against injustice and the Vietnamese government’s violations of people’s rights,” said Patricia Gossman, senior associate Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The government should immediately release her and others persecuted for peacefully exercising their rights to freedom of expression.”
Hoang Thi Hong Thai, 45, has published hundreds of comments on social media focusing on socio-political issues and expressing empathy for people who have suffered government repression. As of July 2026, her Meta account had 118,000 followers.
In April 2025, the police interrogated her about her writing and threatened to arrest her. A few days later, she posted a message on social media apologizing for having no choice but to stop writing as the police were pressuring her to choose between expressing her views or taking care of her autistic child. “Be a mother or go to prison,” she wrote. A few days later, she resumed writing.
In June 2025, she published an online post criticizing articles 117 and 331 of Vietnam’s penal code for violating the right to freedom of speech enshrined in Vietnam’s constitution, and urged the National Assembly to amend or abolish these laws. Article 117 broadly prohibits “making, storing, disseminating or propagandizing information, materials and products that aim to oppose the State of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,” punishable by up to 20 years in prison. Article 331 criminalizes acts deemed to “infringe upon the interests of the state” with up to seven years in prison.
The Vietnamese authorities have intensified the use of article 117 to prosecute other critics for expressing opinions not strictly line with Communist Party views. In the past year, the authorities have convicted and sentenced at least 14 people to prison, and charged at least 12 others under this article.
In March 2026, a court in Dak Lak province convicted and sentenced former political prisoner Huynh Ngoc Tuan to eight and a half years in prison for posting his opinions on social media. He had previously served 10 years in prison for writing fiction that did not meet with the government’s approval.
In June and July, the police arrested five people for their roles in publishing a controversial book about Ho Chi Minh, the founder of Vietnamese communism.
In 2025 and 2026, the authorities have charged six people with anti-state propaganda for their alleged affiliation with the Collective for Democracy and Pluralism, a pro-democracy group founded in France in 1982 to campaign for civil and political rights in Vietnam. They are Quach Gia Khang, 29; Chu Tuan Anh, 28; Nguyen Thanh Tien, 37; Tran Van Khanh, 41; Dinh Thanh Tung, 37; and Nguyen Huu Binh, 31.
Others associated with the group are already serving prison terms, including Tran Khac Duc and Nguyen Duy Niem, who were arrested in 2024 and 2025. In November 2025, a court in Ho Chi Minh City convicted and sentenced Tran Khac Duc to seven years in prison. In March 2026, a court in Nghe An province convicted and sentenced Nguyen Duy Niem to five years in prison.
On August 3, a freelance journalist, Doan Bao Chau, faces trail in absentia at the People’s Court of Hanoi for participating in discussions on BBC Vietnamese. The authorities accuse him of producing anti-state propaganda and have charged him under article 117 of the penal code. In August 2025, police issued a wanted notice, urging people to turn him in after he had gone into hiding.
In December, courts in Hanoi also convicted and sentenced in absentia Le Trung Khoa, a Berlin-based journalist, and Nguyen Van Dai, a former political prisoner, each to 17 years in prison.
“The Vietnamese government’s claim at international forums that they uphold human rights is contradicted daily by the persecution of citizens who criticize the Communist Party,” Gossman said. “Vietnam’s international donors and trade partners should publicly urge the Vietnamese authorities to immediately release all those imprisoned for peacefully exercising their right to free expression.”
Azerbaijan Jails Prominent TV Journalists, Media Workers
An Azerbaijani court on July 27 sentenced nine journalists, media workers, and civil society activists to between 12 and 15 years in prison. It is the harshest verdict since the government began its ongoing crackdown on independent journalism.
The Baku Grave Crimes Court handed down the sentences in the so-called Toplum TV case. Akif Gurbanov and Ruslan Izzatli, affiliated with the Third Republic civic platform which co-produced Toplum TV’s programming, received 15-year sentences. Toplum TV co-founder Alasgar Mammadli received a 14-year sentence, as did Ali Zeynalov, a researcher at the Democratic Initiatives Institute, an independent organization that supports public initiatives and promotes democratic principles, human rights, and transparent elections in Azerbaijan. Democratic Initiatives Institute staff members Ramil Babayev and Ilkin Amrahov and video editor Mushfig Jabbarov received 13 years each. Journalists Farid Ismayilov and Elmir Abbasov were sentenced to 12 years each.
The authorities initially accused the nine of currency smuggling, later adding other financial crimes. All denied the charges and said the prosecutions were politically motivated.
Toplum TV’s editor, Shahnaz Beylergizi, remains under a travel ban while authorities investigate her on similar charges, in a separate case.
The sentences are the longest imposed during Azerbaijan’s yearslong campaign against independent media and civil society. They exceed the terms of between seven-and-a-half and nine years imposed on AbzasMedia journalists in June 2025 and upheld by the Supreme Court in April 2026.
Toplum TV was among Azerbaijan’s last independent news outlets before the authorities began arresting its staff and associates in 2024. The authorities have used similar currency smuggling allegations against journalists from AbzasMedia and Meydan TV. The trial of 12 Meydan TV journalists and media workers remains ongoing.
Azerbaijan’s restrictive regulatory framework has largely excluded independent media and civil society groups from lawful avenues for operating and accessing funding, forcing many to work at the margins of the law and leaving them vulnerable to retaliatory prosecutions on spurious financial charges.
The Azerbaijani authorities should seek to have the convictions voided and those imprisoned released, and end the politically motivated prosecutions of journalists and media workers. Azerbaijan’s international partners should publicly condemn the sentences, press the authorities to release those imprisoned, and make clear that continued repression of independent media will have consequences for political, economic, and security cooperation.
South Sudan: Abuse of Civilians in Western Equatoria
(Nairobi) – South Sudan’s army, opposition forces, and their respective allied militias abused civilians causing much of the population to flee during fighting in 2025 in Nagero County, Western Equatoria, Human Rights Watch said today. The abuses include intentional killings of civilians, rape and torture, or other cruel treatment that constitute war crimes.
Western Equatoria state has been the site of repeated fighting between the army and opposition forces since 2018, with both parties carrying out serious abuses against civilians. From January to February 2025 and then again from September to November 2025, South Sudan’s army–South Sudan People’s Defence Forces (SSPDF)–clashed with the Sudan People’s Liberation Army-in-Opposition (SPLA/IO) in Nagero County. During and after the clashes, government forces and allied fighters summarily executed at least eight civilians, including children; raped women; subjected other civilians, including detainees, to ill-treatment after accusing them of supporting the opposition; and burned and pillaged civilian property.
“Government forces and allied militia carried out serious abuses against civilian communities in Nagero County, leaving many with nothing to return to,” said Laetitia Bader, deputy Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “The government needs to investigate these violations promptly and effectively, and hold the leaders of these forces to account.”
Between March 2025 and June 2026, Human Rights Watch interviewed 31 survivors and witnesses from Nagero County, and 6 other sources. Some of those interviewed had been displaced to other areas, notably to Wau and Bazia (Western Bahr El Ghazal), and Juba, the country’s capital. Human Rights Watch also analyzed satellite imagery showing active fires or burn marks over several villages in Nagero County during January and February 2025. Civilians have returned to Nagero town and environs, but continue to live in fear, and the government has continued to limit aid access into Nagero County as in other conflict-affected areas. Human Rights Watch wrote to the army’s Chief of General staff on July 2, 2026, with preliminary research findings. The letter was reportedly forwarded onto the office of the Minister of Defence but received no response.
In January 2025, the army seized an SPLA/IO controlled checkpoint at a strategic bridge known as Kubri-Bo, triggering clashes. Thousands of civilians fled. On February 7 and 8, as government forces moved from the Kubri-Bo checkpoint south to their main barracks, soldiers detained and killed two school students and burned civilian property in Nagero town and surrounding areas.
On September 28, opposition forces attacked the Nagero town army barracks, prompting additional deployment of government forces. The UN reported that as of late September, at least 21,000 people had fled. In the weeks that followed, the army and allies summarily executed civilians, raped women, arbitrarily detained others, accusing them of supporting the opposition, and destroyed civilian property and infrastructure.
On October 6, government soldiers went to a makeshift camp where people had fled, ordering them to return home, witnesses said. The soldiers then killed six civilians, including three boys, they rounded up at the camp.
One man who witnessed the killings, said that 30 soldiers with “12 machine guns, RPGs and AK47s” took him, 4 other men and 4 boys away from the camp into the bush: “Soldiers tied us together two by two. At this time, one man escaped and soldiers ran and shot at him. The soldiers took a step back and took the big machine guns with bullets in a long chain. Then the soldier in charge gave the order to shoot.” The witness and one other survived. Government forces also pillaged and burned civilian property in and around the town and looted and damaged infrastructure, including health facilities and schools.
On September 29, five government soldiers went to the house of a 19-year-old woman in Lindi neighborhood and set alight six of her family’s houses and a food store. “Our home was burned to ashes,” she said. “They burned our clothes, mattresses, plastic chairs. We were planning to open a restaurant…they burned food such as new groundnuts and cassava flour.”
Government forces also beat and otherwise ill-treated and detained civilians, including in military barracks, as they tried to flee or after they returned home, often accusing them of being rebel fighters or supporters. Civilians began returning home around mid-October 2025, in response to warnings from the military that people found in the bush would be considered SPLA/IO fighters or collaborators, as well as deteriorating conditions in displacement areas.
Two women told Human Rights Watch that government soldiers raped them when they returned home. A 27-year-old woman said that government forces gang raped her and another woman near the Nagero army barracks on November 12. “Three of us were getting vegetables when we met five soldiers,” she said. “One woman threw her vegetables on the ground and ran away. The soldiers then warned the two of us, ‘If anyone runs, we will shoot them.’ They said, ‘Take off your clothes.’ Three soldiers raped us one after the other.” She said she had reported the attack to the neighborhood chief who then reported it to an army commander, but as far as she was aware, no action had been taken.
Multiple people interviewed and experts said that the army’s Division Six forces, along with special forces known as Mobile II, under commander James Nando, were reinforcements for locally posted army units throughout the violence. Media reports corroborated this. Nando had defected from the SPLA/IO in 2020, bringing a group of fighters with him, and has since been deployed alongside government forces. The US Treasury designated Nando on its sanction list in June 2023 for conflict-related sexual violence.
Opposition forces carried out attacks in and near civilian areas during the violence. One man said he was abused by armed men whom he suspected to be SPLA/IO forces or their allies because of their language. The man, age 52, said three-armed men beat him, his wife, and his nephew on October 21 at their home. They handcuffed the two men, marched them off into the bush where, the witness said, “They untied my hands and one pointed a gun at me. I started crying and praying and one said, ‘Are you not a man, why are you afraid to die?’…He took a step back aimed for my chest, his colleague pushed the gun away, but he shot my leg.”
In April 2026, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, a global group that includes UN agencies, humanitarian organizations, and other expert stakeholders, reported that insecurity in Nagero County still restricts people’s access to markets and farms. “How many times are we told to come home and that there will be no more fighting?” one person said. “But when people go back the SSPDF come and kill us and take our property. We run, leave our homes and when we get back, we find we have nothing to return to. How can we live like this and for how long?”
The South Sudanese government should take immediate action to end all abuses against civilians by its armed forces including suspending commanders credibly implicated in abuses pending inquiry; conduct independent, impartial, effective investigations, and publicly report on their findings, Human Rights Watch said. The government should also guarantee safe, immediate humanitarian access throughout Nagero County and facilitate the safe and voluntary return of those displaced.
The SPLA/IO should strictly observe its obligations under international humanitarian law, including to take all feasible precautions to avoid and in any event to minimize harm to civilians, such as during attacks on bases located near civilian areas that could foreseeably expose civilians to retaliation or crossfire. They should also immediately end all abuses against civilians, including those it accuses of links to the army.
The UN peacekeeping mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) should continue to deploy regular protection patrols and human rights monitoring missions to Nagero county. Donors should continue to press the government to allow safe and immediate access throughout conflict-affected areas, and increase assistance to Nagero County.
The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights should consider undertaking a promotional or fact-finding engagement on the protection of civilians and accountability in South Sudan and report its findings to the AU Peace and Security Council. On its part, the Peace and Security Council should request regular reporting from the AU Commission and African Union Mission in South Sudan on civilian protection including in Western Equatoria, and publicly assess progress on the implementation of accountability mechanisms stipulated in the peace agreements, including the establishment of the Hybrid Court for South Sudan.
“Government authorities should ensure that communities repeatedly displaced in Western Equatoria are able to return home safely,” Bader said. “They can start by removing and holding to account abusive commanders and forces, and guaranteeing safe, immediate aid access.”
Click to expand Image ©2026 Human Rights WatchLongstanding tensions in Western Equatoria, including Nagero county between the South Sudan People’s Defence Forces (SSPDF) and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army-in-Opposition (SPLA/IO), have been compounded by tensions between the Balanda and Azande communities, widely perceived as aligned with the opposition and the government, respectively. Nagero County is predominantly inhabited by Balanda, while James Nando is Azande.
After government armed forces on January 6, 2025, took Kubri-Bo–a strategic junction linking Nagero and Tambura, in the south, to Wau, toward the north, fighting broke out between the warring parties and intensified after President Salva Kiir dismissed Western Equatoria Governor Alfred Futuyo Karaba, an SPLM/IO nominee and ethnic Balanda, and replaced him with a government-aligned candidate.
Government reinforcement soldiers came from Division 6 under General James Akech Adim and Nando’s forces stationed in Tambura and Maridi. This was reported as part of a broader government effort to clear SPLA/IO checkpoints along this road.
Fighting reignited on September 28 when the SPLA/IO forces attacked military barracks in Nagero town, and again on October 6, with violence continuing through mid-October.
While witnesses and survivors of abuses described below were not always able to identify their attackers, many attributed most abuses described in this report to government forces, because of their uniform or insignia, their language and vehicles, and which forces controlled the area at a given time.
Killings, including Summary Executions, Injuries of CiviliansGovernment forces and allies killed civilians, including summarily executing at least eight, during the violence in February and October 2025.
On February 7, as government forces withdrew from Kubri-Bo along the main road through Nagero Town, a 51-year-old man saw “four cars full of government soldiers” arrive at the Nagero town market. “The soldiers started beating people and shooting in the air and at people,” he said. “Before I could close my shop, they shot [dead] a man with a mental health condition. One soldier [then] came and shot me in the leg without saying anything. I remained on the ground until morning.” He saw the forces looting and burning shops and homes as they moved along the road through the town.
The forces spent the night in the town’s barracks.
On February 8, as they left their barracks, the soldiers detained and badly beat two young men, Jackson Erneo Kumbo and Stephen Natale Diko, students at a local secondary school, and then took them away. “I saw them forcing the two boys [young men] to sit down on the main road, beating them, with sticks and the back of machetes,” a witness said. “They took both their phones.”
That afternoon, the witness found the young men’s bodies riddled with bullets, 40 kilometers away. “Stephen’s head was badly injured, it was horrible, part of his face was missing. […] His body had also been burned along with the grass around. Jackson was shot in the chest, and […] his right hand and right leg were also broken.” Fearing government forces would return to Nagero town, relatives waited until early the following morning to bury them.
October 6 executionsIn the early afternoon of October 6, 2025, in Nagero town, about thirty heavily armed soldiers arrived at makeshift camps where people had sheltered for over a week, three witnesses said. One witness said that six soldiers looted his cash and phones and warned him to return to town.
The soldiers detained the local chief, Jacob Paingbayo Carmello, who was in the camps, and took away four other men and three boys into the bush area, killing all but two men.
One man who escaped said, “When they tied us, they started firing. They shot many bullets at a go.” He said that the child who had been tied to him, called Saviour, was facing the soldiers and was shot first. “We both fell. I [managed to cut myself away] and started running. The area was full of trees, [bushes]. As I ran, the machine gun also shot towards me. I could see leaves falling around me, but no bullet hit me.” Saviour had been shot dead.
The other survivor said, “When they shot us, someone fell on top of me and I fell unconscious. I lay in that position until the next day. In the evening, I tried to get up and found I had been shot in the thigh and buttocks. The other bodies were starting to smell, and maggots were falling off my body when I moved. I tried to leave that place and started crawling.” He later realized he had been lying on his son’s body.
The army told the media that they had not killed civilians, claiming that those killed were fighters in civilian clothes.
A young woman and her brother returned to Nagero and were repairing their roof when two soldiers confronted them on October 30. The soldiers questioned her brother, saying: “‘When did you come to this house? We have been patrolling here for the last month, and nobody has been living here.’” Her brother said they had fled with other residents when the violence began and just returned.
The woman said, “The soldiers said, ‘If you fled, that means you are a rebel.’ They started beating him with a rubber stick and their guns. [My brother] told me in our language to run, while he fought the soldiers. He grabbed a knife from one soldier and stabbed him in the stomach. The other then shot [my brother] repeatedly in the chest and he fell down.”
Her brother died and the soldier later died of his injury.
Abusive, Arbitrary Detention; Other Ill-TreatmentPeople interviewed said that they were arbitrarily arrested and held in military barracks, beaten and ill-treated by soldiers as they fled the violence or when they returned home. The forces often accused civilians of supporting the opposition forces.
A 54-year-old man said he was detained on September 28, 2025, taken to the prison in Nagero town and accused of supplying the SPLA/IO with food and medicine. He said soldiers beat him twice a day with a rubber pole or stick for 11 days in a row. He was denied food and water for the first two days. He said, “Water would be poured on me, and I would be given 120 lashes on my buttocks and back. This only stopped when a new captain took over.” The man was released after a church representative intervened.
Once he returned home, harassment by soldiers still in the area forced him to flee: “The soldiers did not allow us to live freely or work in our farms. They could beat anybody they got. They said anybody who lived in that area is SPLA/IO and they will be shot or arrested.”
A 45-year-old woman said soldiers detained her on October 7 in Nagero town along with her mother and eight other women, holding them for three days at their base at Kubri-Bo. “The men were kept separate and I did not see them until I left. The women [were made to] fetch water and cook beans for the soldiers.”
A 31-year-old woman who sheltered in a makeshift camp, which she said was protected by the opposition forces, left on October 7. Government forces stopped her group, she said, and asked, “Where we came from, what we saw in the IO camp, whether we were wives and children of rebels, why we ran from our homes. They beat people with rubber pipes and beat two boys with the backs of their guns. The soldiers asked them for money, but they said they didn’t have and that they were students. The soldiers then said, ‘Oh you are the true rebels.’ They were beaten badly.”
Rape and Sexual ViolenceIn addition to the two women mentioned above who were raped when they returned home, a 25-year-old woman said she and another woman were gang raped while collecting firewood with two other women in late October:
One soldier climbed up a tree maybe to keep watch. Three soldiers took the woman in her 30s a small distance and raped her there. Another soldier tied the other woman, in her 50s, with a rope on her hands and feet and left her seated. Two soldiers started tearing my clothes and pushing me to the ground. I tried to refuse and they beat me and pointed a knife and a gun at me saying, ‘If you disturb, we will finish you.’ When they were done, the [lookout] soldier came down from the tree, beat, slapped and also raped me.
Burning, Looting, Destruction of Civilian PropertyDuring the violence in February, September, and October, 2025, government forces looted food stores, as well as other private and public property.
Witnesses to both episodes said soldiers deliberately burned their property and burned homes including grass thatched houses, notably along the road through Nagero town and surrounding villages. Others said they were not sure if some burning was the result of crossfire, or had spread from other fires started by the soldiers such as when they burned grass along the roadsides to deprive opposition fighters of coverage.
A civil society representative documented homes being burned in multiple neghborhoods on February 7 and 8 including in Awolbot, Bandala, Bangaru, Diayanga, Kpangu, Mapiso Naagbagi, Nakptaguru, Nakpanangbara, Ngoi, Maringindo, and Zamoi.
Human Rights Watch analyzed satellite imagery from the morning of February 7, 2025, showing smoke plumes over Nakptaguru, a village four kilometers north of Nagero town. Imagery from the following day shows active fires in the northwest part of Nagero town and over Maringindo village, about nine kilometers south on the road to Tambura.
Click to expand Image Short-wave infrared visualization of satellite imagery from February 8, 2025, shows active fires and smoke plumes over Nagero and Maringindo, Western Equatoria, South Sudan. Image ©2026 Copernicus. Sentinel-2 data. Graphics ©2026 Human Rights WatchPeople interviewed and activists said that government forces again burned civilian property on September 28 and 29.
On September 29, nine government soldiers stopped a man, 29, as he fled with his family. They forced them to return home in Nakptaguru neighborgood and beat him in front of his children: “[They said] ‘If you are not a rebel, why are you running away?’ They started beating me with ropes, with their hands and guns, my children started crying.” They looted cassava, groundnuts, millet flour, and chickens, and other civilian goods and infrastructure, and burned down his two houses.
In addition to the burning, the forces also stole personal goods from civilians, and damaged and looted civilian property.
The 27-year-old woman beaten alongside her stepmother said the soldiers stole her father’s bicycle and radio, and the battery from a solar panel, then burned their homes.
The 54-year-old man who was detained on September 28 and taken to a prison in Nagero town said the soldiers first looted three new bicycles, two 20-liter jerricans of petrol, solar batteries and lamps, and a big box with medicines.
People interviewed said that government forces also damaged and looted healthcare and education facilities.
A 56-year-old man who guarded a small health facility said that on September 28, soldiers attacked the facility, beat patients, doctors and nurses, and looted it. He said that four soldiers entered the facility: “They…pushed [the doctor] down using a gun. They broke down the door, found medicine and set it on fire. Then…took a laptop, and removed six installed solar batteries. Two climbed the roof and took down nine solar panels and three new batteries in cartons. They forced the doctor and other people…to carry the looted goods.”
A 58-year-old man said that 15 soldiers, some in uniforms and others in civilian clothes, arrived in a military pick-up truck and Landcruiser on October 7 at the Nagero primary school: “One jumped from the truck and started shooting bullets in the air then he opened the school gate. I…[hid] but could see them clearly. They broke into classrooms, into offices and into stores using iron bars. They broke windows and took everything they could find into the cars and then they drove off.”
Humanitarian Impact, Aftermath of ViolenceAfter clashes broke out on September 28, 2025, some civilians fled into army barracks in the town while many fled into the nearby bush and forest, then further afield. REACH, an organization that provides humanitarian data, reported that displaced community leaders and elders said that the entire population of eight neighborhoods of Nagero Payam was displaced, with local authorities reporting that 16,000 people were sheltering around a church in Bazia town alone. Thousands remained displaced into 2026.
Displacement was particularly harsh on older people, people with disabilities, and pregnant people.
A 34-year-old man said that when he fled toward Bazia in late September a journey of four to seven days on foot, five older people died on the way apparently from illness and inadequate food, and one woman died after childbirth. A health official said that a 67-year-old man who was unable to walk due to severe rheumatism was left behind for two months after his family fled the September violence. “The man’s remains were found when people returned to visit in November,” the official said. He also said a blind man in his 70s died in mid-October in the bush after his grandson fled leaving him alone.
Media reported in January 2026 that the looting of health facilities had compounded an already struggling health system, forcing patients to travel long distances or rely on traditional remedies that they might not have otherwise prioritized if other medical care was available.
A survivor from the October 6 executions said that when he eventually returned to Nagero, one of his children fell ill, “I took him to the health facility, and found [it] empty. There was a bed but no mattress.” A medical volunteer said he cried when he saw the state of the main health facility in Nagero town and that as of June 2026, while they had received some very basic supplies, they had no lighting because they had not been able to replace the solar panels that had been destroyed, or other basic supplies such as bandages.
A school official said all the schools in the town were damaged or looted, adding that only half of the schools in and around Nagero were functioning as of June 2026 because teachers have not returned: “Pupils lack exercise books, people who return have no money to buy these things.” A survivor of the October 6 executions said they have still not been able to harvest crops and so he cannot afford to send his children back to school.
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification warned in April 2026 that an already critical nutrition situation in Nagero county was expected to deteriorate further through July because of ongoing insecurity.
Two witnesses of the October 6 summary executions say they have seen some of the same soldiers involved in the incident around the town. A relative of the two students killed on February 8 said that he reported the case, but over a year later no investigation has taken place, and he cannot even afford to build a tombstone for the two. “Every morning I wake up and see the spot where we’ve buried them, we’ve not built with cement, just with soil,” he said. “It rains on top of it.”