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Home , Etche, Hutu, Ituri conflict, Kabylia, Sabaot people, Siad Barre

ALGERI A LI BYA Wester n EGYP T Sahara

MAURI TANI A THE GAMBI A SU DAN - BURKIN A FAS O GUINE A SIER RA LEONE CÔTE CENT RAL D’I VOIR E AFRICAN RE P.

CAMEROON Afric1 a UGAN DA SAO TOM E EQU AT. AND PRINCIPE GUINEA RE P. O F KEN YA Ishbel Matheson THE CONGO RWAN DA DEM. RE P. OF THE CONG O INDIAN TANZANI A OCEAN

ANGO LA MA LAWI ATLANTI C

OCEAN MA DAGASCA R

NAMIBIA BOTS WAN A

SWAZI LAN D

LESOTHO

SOUTH AFRICA Africa is one of the continents hardest hit by climate highly attuned to vagaries of the weather system, Country by country was officially taught in primary schools, starting in the change – and marginalized minorities are likely to be may in fact be better able to develop adaptive fourth grade in 17 predominantly Berber provinces.’ among the most vulnerable of all. According to data strategies than other communities ( Fourth Assessment Parliamentary elections in May 2007 were only the released in 2007 by the Intergovernmental Panel on Report , October 2007). third democratic poll to be held since 1992, when However, this progress still falls short of Tamazight Climate Change (IPCC), by 2020 between 75 Apart from the looming threat of climate change, the army cancelled the first multi-party elections being recognized as an ‘official’ language – as million and 250 million people in Africa are conflict with an ethnic dimension, was, once again, which were won by the fundamentalist FIS (Islamic demanded by Berber campaigners. Moreover, there expected to be suffering from increased water stress the biggest immediate threat to minorities across the Salvation Front) party. The consequences of the are complaints that, outside , ’ due to climate change. The IPCC also predicts that continent. In Ethiopia, the government launched an ensuing civil war, marked by extreme brutality, are linguistic and cultural rights continue to be restricted. climatic developments make it likely that food offensive against ethnic Somali rebels in the still being felt today. The Salafist militants, re- production could halve by 2020, with the Sahel, arid , after a rebel attack on an oil exploration site. launched in 2007 as a branch of al-Qaeda, have but relatively densely populated, among the most The security forces’ tactics – such as a food blockade their roots in the armed Islamic opposition to the The efforts by Botswana’s minorities for recognition exposed of ( Fourth Assessment Report , and burning villages – attracted international Algerian state. Al-Qaeda in the Islamic has of their rights continued in 2007. Despite being a October 2007). The resultant strain upon available criticism for indiscriminately affecting civilians. In claimed responsibility for a number of attacks across multi-ethnic state, comprised of 45 tribes, resources would impact in particular upon the pre- , the unravelling of a key peace deal between , including a series of bombings in Botswana’s laws and continue to existing tensions between farmers and transhumant and the former Southern rebels, opened Algeria, leaving many dead. In January 2007, it discriminate in favour of those from the dominant pastoralists, with potentially severe consequences for up the possibility of renewed warfare, while there targeted security forces in the minority Berber area Tswana-speaking group. Most of the laws of minorities across the region, such as the Peul/Fulani, were also new signs of restiveness in the north among of Kabylia in north-eastern Algeria. According to Botswana recognize and protect the rights of the Mbororo and Tuareg and related groups. Similarly, the Nubian and Manassir peoples. The catastrophe in BBC News, seven bombs were detonated and at Tswana-speaking groups with regards to ethnic the UNDP ( Development Darfur worsened, despite renewed efforts by the least six people were killed. identity (including language and culture), land and Programme) Human Development Report for 2006 international community. Worryingly, the disruptive Observers said the low turnout in the chieftaincy. However no such recognition or identifies -prone countries in effects of this war are spreading, not just into parliamentary poll reflected the electorate’s protection is given to the non-Tswana-speaking – , , Zambia and Zimbabwe as having neighbouring Chad and Republic, but understanding that power was concentrated in the ethnic groups in Botswana. Indeed, following the ‘gravest food security challenges in the world’. also within Sudan itself. In Somalia, clan-based hands of the presidency not the parliament. For the independence in 1966, the only languages allowed Some communities are already experiencing this, warfare intensified, as the struggle between the Berber minority – which makes up approximately for public purposes or in teaching were Setswana first-hand. In and the , supporters of the (ICU) and 25 per cent of the Algerian population – grievances and English. the Afar and the Somali in Ethiopia, and pastoralists the transitional government, backed by the about recognition of their distinct language and A 2001 High Court ruling in a case brought by the like the Karamajong in , are already Ethiopians continued. As predicted in SWM 2007 , cultural rights remain. Berber political parties were Wayeyi tribe, found that the exclusion of the Wayeyi grappling with the reality of more frequent cycles of the fighting sparked a severe humanitarian crisis, with divided about whether to contest the elections: the from the House of Chiefs – an influential body which drought. Cross-border flare-ups between the cattle- the United Nations (UN) estimating over 1,000 Rally for Culture and Democracy gained 19 seats, advises parliament – was discriminatory and herding tribes of the Horn of Africa, testify to the killed and 400,000 displaced in October 2007. re-entering parliament after a boycott in 2002. unjustified. However, despite the ruling, the potential for conflict, as competition for scarce The difficulties of managing tourism development However, the Social Forces Front decided once again government’s action purporting to remedy this resources intensifies. In an October 2007 report, while still respecting the rights of minorities and not to contest the election. About half of the discrimination has been far from satisfactory. In 2005, UNICEF reported that half of the total stock indigenous peoples emerged as another powerful Berber-speaking population is concentrated in the the Botswana parliament passed a constitutional holding of pastoralists in the Horn of Africa had theme in 2007. For example, the plight of the mountainous areas east of – Kabylia – and amendment, dealing with membership of the House been wiped out, and that ‘repeated bouts of drought Hadzabe hunter-gatherers close to the Serengeti this area and its language have been at the centre of of Chiefs. However, the campaign group Reteng have defeated pastoralists’ capacities to recover their plains in is typical. According to reports in most Berber issues in modern Algeria. In 2001, riots concluded that this merely further entrenched the stock level’. UNICEF explicitly linked political June 2007, the Tanzanian government struck a deal and demonstrations erupted in the region, due to inequalities. It noted that when the present House of marginalization of the pastoralists to the fact that to lease the land, which was traditionally occupied by widespread claims of repression and marginalization. Chiefs was inaugurated on 1 February 2007, of the 45 governments and the international community fail the Hadzabe, to a safari company from the United Since then, the government has promised more tribes, 20 remained entirely unrepresented. In June to put in place services that would help mitigate the Arab Emirates. Although the deal supposedly economic assistance and eased some restrictions on 2007, the National Assembly proposed the Bogosi effects of drought ( Global Alert: Pastoralist Child ). included the development of roads and education the use of Tamazight – the Berber language. In its bill, which if enacted, would repeal the Chieftaincy The freak rains which hit the continent, east to facilities, the Hadzabe – who number around 1,500 – 2007 report on Algeria, the US State Department Act. However, campaigners say the proposals fall far west in 2007, showed that the growing were not consulted on it, and were reportedly noted that: short of what is required and still preserve the unpredictability of weather events is a further factor opposed to it. Following a campaign by indigenous disproportionate influence of the Tswana tribes in the to which minority groups would be particularly activists, Survival International reported in November ‘Access to print and broadcast media for Tamazight and House of Chiefs. exposed. The IPCC notes that low development 2007 that the safari company had withdrawn from Amazigh culture continued to grow. Tamazight Reteng and Minority Rights Group International levels, weak economies and poor governance records the project. However, the pattern of ignoring the programming also increased on the non-Berber (MRG) have submitted a case, based on the Wayeyi impact on the ability of states and communities to rights of minorities when considering tourism issues language channels, as did advertisements in Tamazight ruling, to the African Commission on Human and combat climate change. However, it did hold out was also evident in Botswana, and Uganda (see on all television and radio channels. Beginning in the Peoples’ Rights, located in , alleging the possibility that some nomadic groups, already individual country profiles). 2006–2007 scholastic year, the Tamazight language violations of the African Charter on Human and

58 Africa State of the World’s Africa State of the World’s 59 Minorities 2008 Minorities 2008 Peoples’ Rights. These include violations of the right political force since the 2005 polls – overturning the northern CAR, while the government of General to seek protection from militias as well as fuelling to participate freely in government (Article 13), the previous dominance by the minority. The François Bozizé has accused Khartoum of allowing discontent with the central government’s inability to right to freely take part in the cultural life of a government is faced with the challenge of developing rebels from CAR to base themselves in Darfur. In an curb the criminal attacks. Cow-herding nomadic community (Article 17) and the right to equality a genuinely pluralistic politics and functioning civil attempt to contain the spreading effects of the tribes, the Mbororo have particularly suffered in this (Article 19). society after nearly 50 years of deepening ethnic Darfur war, the United Nations approved the prevailing atmosphere of lawlessness and rebellion The treatment of the San hunter-gatherers in violence. Despite a peace agreement between the deployment of a 3,700 strong force across the north. Targeted for their wealth and Botswana continued to raise concerns in 2007. The government and the last remaining Hutu rebel front, mainly to Chad, but also to Central African livestock, many have fled to camps in southern San scored a historic victory at the end of 2006, the National Liberation Front (FNL), in September Republic in September 2007. The troops are to be Chad. In April 2007, Office of the UN High when the High Court in Botswana ruled that 2006, a minority break-away wing of the FNL under drawn from (EU) nations – and Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) announced forcible evictions from their ancestral lands in the the leadership of Agathon Rwasa, was still in conflict the goal is to protect civilians from cross-border the opening of a new refugee camp in , Central Kalahari Game Reserve in 2002 were illegal with government forces in late 2007, staging hit- attacks. However, by late 2007 the EU force had following the flight of some 25,000 Mbororo from and unconstitutional, and that the ban on hunting and-run raids in and around . run into difficulties – in particular due to the CAR. In a statement UNCHR said the Mbororo was illegal. However, it became evident in 2007 that Unlike neighbouring , Burundi does reluctance of states to contribute vital military had been singled out ‘relentlessly’ by both bandits the Botswana government was intent on only recognize the distinct ethnicity of the Batwa. There hardware, such as helicopters, to the mission. and rebels, and that ‘a small number of those who allowing the narrowest interpretation of this ruling. are estimated to be between 30,000 and 40,000 Attention also focused in 2007 on the home- managed to save some of their livestock continue to It insists that the court’s judgment only applied to Batwa living in the country. The 2005 constitution grown rebellions within the CAR. In the past few graze cattle inside Cameroon. But the others, having those listed on the legal case papers, and there have set aside three seats in the National Assembly and years, two revolts have been under way in the north: lost everything, are in an extremely precarious been repeated arrests of San who have tried to hunt three seats in the for Twa. Nonetheless this one in the north-east and one in the north-west. An situation.’ In November 2007, Amnesty in the Reserve. group are still mostly landless and are among the estimated 200,000 civilians have fled their homes International reported ( War Against Children in the The court case followed progressive dispossession poorest people in what is a very poor country. In during this time – with some 50,000 seeking Wild North ) on the pervasive practice of child of the San of land which they have inhabited for testimonies gathered by MRG in Burundi in 2007, sanctuary in Cameroon and Chad. Government abduction from Mbororo communities, for ransom. thousands of years. The forces of modernization, Batwa complained of many difficulties relating to forces confronting the rebellions have been accused Some children have been abducted by zaraguinas economic imperatives (diamonds were discovered in land rights, either through lack of title, of widespread human rights abuses, including more than 10 times. Girls are especially vulnerable; the territory) and tourism have all been cited as discriminatory practices relating to allocation on the summary executions. While the insurgencies have they may be held for months, and raped. Ransoms reasons for the evictions of the San. Their part of the authorities or failure to recognize historic different dynamics, overall the political and can be up to $10,000. Amnesty says that state subsequent existence in government resettlement rights to land. According to the Forest Peoples economic marginalization of the north is the security forces often fail to intervene, even when camps, without access to the expanses of the Programme, land laws in Burundi blatantly dominant factor. In the remote and underdeveloped they are in a position to do so. Kalahari, has sounded the death-knell for their discriminate against Batwa, as they base customary north-east, the rebellion centres on the Gula ethnic In the south of the country, the cultural survival of unique hunter-gatherer way of life. land rights on ‘actual and visible occupation of the group. In a 2007 report, the forest-dwelling peoples of the CAR – the biggest Survival International reported in December land’, while the traditional hunter-gather lifestyle (HRW) describes their grievances as, variously, group of which is the Aka – continues to be in 2007 that up to 150 people had managed to re- tends to not visibly impact on territory. The new discrimination against the Gula, and alleged question. UNESCO, which has recognized the settle in the park despite the obstacles. But it is Land Commission in Burundi is tasked with sorting embezzlements of community payments by unique polyphonic musical traditions of the Aka, estimated that up to 1,000 more would like to go out the complex land issues which have arisen since government officials. After an offensive where the warns that ‘the scarcity of game resulting from back. The non-governmental organization (NGO) the end of the conflict, and the return of many rebel Gula-dominated UFDR seized key towns, deforestation, the rural exodus and the folklorization said lack of adequate water supplies, lack of access to refugees. The Commission has one Batwa member, government security forces, supported by the French of their heritage for the tourist industry are the transport back to the reserve and undue pressure and it is hoped that it will tackle the question of the military, struck back. According to HRW, most of principal factors contributing to the gradual from government officials were preventing more land rights of indigenous peoples. Aside from land the Gula population fled for fear of retaliation by disappearance of many of their traditional customs, people from returning (see also ). issues, Batwa also complained to MRG about the government forces. However, a peace deal signed rituals and skills’. Illegal logging presents a huge discrimination in social services, especially in health in April 2007 between the UFDR and the problem for the Aka: even when logging is supposed Burundi and education. In particular, the difficulty of government has stabilized the situation. In to be state-controlled, and conservation measures are Burundi’s population is 85 per cent Hutu, educating Batwa children beyond primary level was December 2007, the UN noted that, while the in place, there are difficulties. In a November 2007 approximately 14 per cent Tutsi and roughly 1 per highlighted. A survey undertaken by UNIPROBA – situation remained ‘fragile’, it had been sufficiently report, the Forest Peoples Programme reports that in cent Batwa. After the end of widespread hostilities in an organization representing the Burundian Batwa – good for some displaced civilians to return home. the Dzanga Protected Area Complex – where the Burundi and the constitutional referendum and found just seven Batwa students in university The difficulties in the north-west, are driven Aka have some limited rights to hunt and pursue a presidential election of 2005, the country has education in 2006. partly by followers of the former president Ange- traditional lifestyle – the younger generation is losing maintained a cautious path towards reconstruction Félix Patassé (who hails from this region), who feel its forest knowledge, as development opportunities and political stabilization during 2007, with excluded from political patronage of the Bozizé increase and the trend towards sedentarization takes considerable outside aid and diplomatic pressure. The impact of the interlocking wars and rebellions regime. The unrest is also driven partly by sheer hold. In all walks of life, the Aka still face deep- President ’s majority Hutu in the central African region was felt in CAR. Rebels lawlessness, embodied by bandits known as seated discrimination from other communities in the government and legislature has been the main from Chad and Darfur continue to operate from zaraguinas , whose activities lead local communities Central African Republic.

60 Africa State of the World’s Africa State of the World’s 61 Minorities 2008 Minorities 2008 Songs, life in the forest and the Sanfami’s daughter was beaten because she struggle for acceptance refused to work for a Bantu who had encountered her in the road. The baby she was Matilde Ceravolo describes how the Aka carrying on her back, died as a consequence of Pygmies of Central African Republic the beating. came to learn about human rights. Aka men have been forced to work for leading citizens in the city of Bagandou, in Lobaye ‘So zo la, so zo la, zo kwe a’ke zo … ’ – all region. When human rights defenders around the Lobaye region, children going to approached, they were threatened with having school and women in front of their hearth, all one of the Aka killed in front of them. sing a chirpy rhythm. Aka children at school are often victims of Aka Pygmies are renowned for being sneering from their schoolmates and are excluded exceptional musicians. In their ancient oral from the class groups. At public health centres traditions, ideas as well as stories have been Aka are forced to allow all the other patients to diffused through easy-to-remember songs. This be attended to before their turn comes. one means: ‘This person here, and that one Even the right to a nationality is denied to there, every person is a human being.’ Aka. It is estimated that around 35,000 Aka live That is not an obvious statement in the in the Central African Republic, while the southern Central African Republic. Aka are official census of 2003 only registered 10,000 – normally considered as a bit less than human the ones who were enrolled to vote at the beings, something in between humans and presidential elections. monkeys. They are often regarded as private property, being ‘owned’ by the majority Bantu ‘Culturally unique’ and used for hard farming tasks. Aka oral traditions have been declared as part of Once upon a time, when Aka were able to live world heritage by UNESCO. Since then, the on forest products, their relations with the government has received funds to preserve their Bantus were based on mutually advantageous culture. Appreciable efforts have been made and trading arrangements. Aka would approach the Ministry of Youth, Sports, Arts and Culture is villages to exchange meat, fish, mushrooms and working hard to improve the conditions of Aka roots for semi-industrialized goods, such as Pygmies. However, the government tax that is cooking pots and matches. They would have a charged for those visiting an Aka encampment, has privileged relation with one specific Bantu not been used for the benefit of the communities. human? Are you human or animal? All that children to have the right to go to school and family, but they were free to negotiate deals. The list of daily minority rights violations is followed was developed from there, by the Aka for her to be considered a citizen like any other Since industrialized forest exploitation has long. Aka have been denied access to education: in themselves. Community leaders invented songs; Central African. begun, Aka have found it harder and harder to the Lobaye region, only one Aka is known to have they participated in public discussions; they The following day Antoine was received with a survive in the forest and have been forced to ever accessed secondary education, and this was manufactured objects to be exhibited in , standing ovation at the National Assembly. He is settle next to the villages, looking for seasonal under Emperor Bokassa, in the 1970s. contributing to the valorization of Aka culture. one of the only three Aka to have been elected as jobs. Bantus have become their ‘masters’, They created community-based organizations to village chief, after a long struggle. No Aka has deciding when to hire them, if and how much to Learning about human rights promote human rights. They travelled to meet ever held a higher administrative position. pay. The traditional Pygmy values of living with The Aka had never even heard about human each other and to exchange lessons learned. They This is the happy end of a first chapter. But no private property and their tradition of moving rights until 2003, when the first project was spoke on national radio broadcasts and answered the struggle of Aka Pygmies to have their rights through the forests, with settled abodes, are seen funded by the European Commission and run by questions at university conferences. recognized is just beginning. by the Bantu as symptoms of under-civilization. the Italian non-governmental organization In October last year, at the official closure of (NGO) Cooperazione Internazionale (COOPI). the project, Germaine, a 30-year-old mother of Above: Aka leader. Germaine Dimanche (centre) Targets of violence and discrimination The first steps of the awareness- raising campaigns two, gave a speech in front of journalists to all and senior education and training adviser André Misunderstandings between Aka and Bantus were very basic: a drawing representing a child, a the national media. It was the first time in Yakota talk with Matilde Ceravolo during a happen every day, and acts of violence are not man and an antelope. And the question: what is history that an Aka woman had talked in a meeting with the Aka Human Rights Defence uncommon. the difference between each of them? What is press conference. She vibrantly asked for her Group in Mbata. Photo by Guss Meijer/COOPI

62 Africa State of the World’s Africa State of the World’s 63 Minorities 2008 Minorities 2008 Chad political opponents and ethnic cleansing. In 2007, Déby in 2006. But a Libyan-brokered peace deal While the first round of violence, after the defeat The security situation in Chad deteriorated sharply, the UN Committee Against Torture criticized the saw Nour appointed defence minister, and a of the previous single-party military ruler Sassou at with continuing attacks by rebel groups in the east slow progress being made to bring Habré to justice. promise to integrate FUC into the main armed the polls in 1992, was largely dominated by political against the government of Idriss Déby. According to The south’s sense of grievance has also been forces. However, by late 2007, this deal had and military allegiance (with much of the army loyal an IRIN report in December 2007, 90 per cent of intensified by the discovery of oil in the region. unravelled, with ex-FUC fighters taking up arms to Sassou), a resurgence of conflict from 1997 saw the Chadian armed forces were tied up in the There is discontent at extremely high levels of again and Nour seeking refuge in the Libyan three major political figures – Sassou, head of state fighting in the east of the country. The apparent corruption in the Déby regime, and the inequitable embassy in N’jamena. The breakdown in the FUC Pascal Lissouba and Lari figurehead Bernard Kolelas collapse of a 2006 agreement between a key rebel distribution of the oil wealth, particularly to the agreement coincided with the collapse of another – recruit militias on consciously ethnicist grounds, group, the United Front for Change (FUC) and the south. In August 2007, Agence- Presse Libyan-backed peace initiative between the Chad often from villages away from the major centres in government at the end of 2007 placed further reported that Ngarlejy Yoronger, the leader of the government and four rebel groups: the UFDD, one of francophone Africa’s most urbanized pressure on President Déby, who had already southern opposition party, the Front des Forces CNT, RFC and UFDD-Fondamental. This lasted societies. The result has been the hardening of resisted a strong attempt to topple his government d’Action pour la République (FAR), refused to sign just a month. By late 2007, these groups were ethnic prejudices between Sassou’s north-central in April 2006 . an agreement for improved electoral organization in reported to have embarked on a fresh offensive Mbochi ethnic group, which dominates A European Union (EU) peacekeeping force the run-up to the 2009 election. He denounced the against the government, with correspondents government, and the southern Lari. Matters have which was due to deploy by October 2007, was proposals as being worthless while the country was reporting the fiercest fighting in the east for months. been complicated by the absence of effective delayed until 2008, dogged by logistical difficulties. in the grip of a rebellion, and called instead for an The turmoil in the east has also become further political leadership among the Lari: an ageing The UN-mandated mission is intended to protect inclusive dialogue with all sections of society. complicated by the involvement of the Sudanese Kolelas has compromised with Sassou, apparently civilians, refugees and aid workers from cross-border The conflict in the east of the country has several government-backed Janjaweed militia. Amnesty for the sake of his immediate family, and has lost attacks, as the effects of Darfur conflict threaten to different dimensions, all overlapping. There is an International ( Sowing the Seeds of Darfur, June much credibility with his own previously loyal Lari seriously destabilize Chad. The force will be internal dimension, related to the autocratic nature of 2006) has documented the cross-border attacks followers. approximately 3,700 strong – the majority of whom Déby’s regime, as well as personal and sub-tribe from this Arab militia targeting ‘African’ tribes along In addition, recent years have seen an upswing in will be French. France, as the former colonial power, rivalries. This has driven members of the president’s the border. The causes of these attacks are partly what some specialists refer to as ‘Lari nostalgia’ for already has a strong military presence in Chad, own family, and his own Zaghawa tribe to take up criminal – theft of cattle and assets, and partly the medieval/early modern Kingdom of Kongo, however the UFDD rebel group in the east has arms. One of the main rebel groups, the RFC, for strategic. As Amnesty notes, the militia attacks promoting further hostility among the Mbochi and already signalled its opposition to the peacekeeping example, is led by the president’s uncle. Another communities that are left unguarded when the related northern populations, themselves an overall force, claiming that the French are already using important factor is ethnic tensions, which spread Chadian army is otherwise engaged with the rebels. minority. In recent years, this polarization has their military presence in Chad to support Déby. All across borders and run back decades, if not longer. In The goal is to spread mayhem and insecurity, and increasingly centred on the ‘Beach affair’, where the indications are that the EU force will deploy in the simplest terms, the Sudanese government accuses thereby increase pressure on Déby. However, there approximately 350 Lari militiamen were forcibly a worsening security environment and will have a the Chadian authorities of offering support to the are also disturbing racial overtones to the attacks, as repatriated from exile in and then extra- tough task fulfilling its mandate. There are an Darfur rebels – particularly those from the Zaghawa it is ‘African’ tribes that are targeted. Amnesty judicially executed, allegedly on orders from Sassou’s estimated 400,000 refugees and internally displaced ethnic group – to fight against Khartoum. Although a reports victims being racially abused while being . The Beach affair has been the people in the region. minority in Chad (estimated at 1–2 per cent of the attacked, with comments from Janjaweed attackers subject of repeated legal action in France and in Although the main crisis is presently in the east, population), the Zaghawa form the political elite in such as ‘This land is ours’ – meaning it belongs to Congo itself. Chad’s inability to fashion a government inclusive of the country. By contrast, in Sudan, the Zaghawa are a Arabs. The export of the racially motivated warfare, Within the Lari population in and around all sectors of society is a key factor in its instability. marginalized group, excluded from political power by which is a defining feature of the Darfur conflict southern , tensions have remained high in The peoples of the mainly Christian south make up the Arab elite concentrated in Khartoum. Chadian and which has led to accusations of , is an recent months between the ‘Nsiloulou’ militias loyal approximately 45 per cent of the population but Zaghawa have provided vital support, including funds extremely worrying dimension to the growing to the neo-millenarian Pasteur Ntoumi, and ‘Ninjas’ have been excluded from political power for over and weaponry, to their Darfur kinsmen, in their disorder and insecurity in the east. still loyal to Kolelas. French and Congolese human two decades. Under the former president Hissène struggle against the central government. rights campaigners are concerned that the Habré, who hailed from the north, an estimated On the other side, Déby has accused Khartoum Congo-Brazzaville (Republic of Congo) continuing potential for conflict will be 40,000 people were said to have been killed, many of allowing Chadian rebels to use Darfur as an One of the legacies of Congo’s violent modern instrumentalized by Sassou as a means to further of them southerners (Human Rights Watch, 2005, operational base. In the Chadian context, this fact history is a tension between the increasingly centralization of his control over the oil and Chad: The Victims of Hissene Habre Still Awaiting has special significance – as both Déby and his personalized government of President Denis Sassou infrastructure sectors. Justice ). Habré attempted to wipe out the southern predecessor Habré launched their successful coups Nguesso and the Lari ethno-linguistic group of the elite, and embarked on a scorched earth rural from rear bases in Darfur. There are several rebel Pool region, around the capital Brazzaville. This Democratic Republic of Congo strategy in a region he viewed as secessionist. In groups ranged against Déby. One of the most tension, which has taken an increasingly ethnic In the year following the relatively peaceful election 2006, the mandated Senegal – the important has been the FUC – fighters hailing from character since Congo’s two civil wars after 1993, is of as president, few of the DRC’s country where the ex-president has lived since he the Tama ethnic group, which has had a long- largely modern in nature, and shows how identity underlying problems showed signs of being solved. was ousted – to try Habré for his alleged crimes, standing rivalry with the Zaghawa. This group – led boundaries can harden as a direct consequence of In and around Kinshasa, the possibility of including those relating to torture, murder of by Mahamet Nour Abdelkarim – almost toppled the struggle for political and economic power. widespread violent social unrest remains ever-

64 Africa State of the World’s Africa State of the World’s 65 Minorities 2008 Minorities 2008 present, despite the efforts of the UN peacekeeping whose ruling RPF come from the minority Tutsi on the Batwa/Bambuti as on other communities. must continue to be registered as either Muslims, mission (MONUC) to bolster security ethnic group. Many fled the capital at Pillage, torture and killings are common, and there is Jews or Christians. Refusal to do so entails the infrastructures. But the worst of the continuing this time, fearing attack, and sought sanctuary back a particularly high incidence of rape and extreme inability to obtain documentation ranging from Congolese crisis is in the east. in the east. sexual violence. In , some Batwa/Bambuti birth certificates to other identification necessary to The key factor remains the ongoing crises in the The events in eastern Congo in 2007 are a communities have been caught in the large waves of open accounts and send children to school. A Kivu provinces, Katanga and Ituri. The upswing in continuance of the poisonous ethnic strife which led displacement caused by the ongoing fighting between government report in October 2006 argued that violence seen in North Kivu in mid-2007 was the to the genocide of minority and Hutu forces loyal to Nkunda, Congolese Maï-Maï and the Baha’is must be ‘identified, confronted and singled most recent episode in the continuing struggle for moderates in Rwanda in 1994. Beyond Nkunda’s Congolese armed forces. Further north in Ituri, the out so that they can be watched carefully, isolated resources and local control between Congolese Tutsi immediate circumstances, the long-term issue of the situation in areas where Bambuti live was calmer and monitored in order to protect the rest of the (known as Banyamulenge) militias and the Hutu insecurity of the Banyamulenge minority in the during the course of 2006–7, although some parts of population as well as Islam from their danger, of the Democratic Forces for the DRC, and how they may best combat this, remains the district are threatened by the presence of hardcore influence and their teachings’. Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), as well as unresolved. The Banymulenge themselves are FRPI fighters who have refused to join the Issues of religious freedom also arise in cases independent raiding groups of often indeterminate divided over the way to a solution. Most demobilization programme. Throughout the region, where individuals wish to convert to Christianity allegiance who are looking for material resources acknowledged Banyamulenge political thinkers are the chronic proverty and marginalization experienced from Islam. Those who convert often do so quietly rather than any strategic or political advantage. The in favour of a negotiated political solution, but by Batwa/Bambuti communities is exacerbated by the because of the harassment and intimidation from renegade army officer General , disapprove strongly of the lack of Banyamulenge security situation. both the authorities, including the police, and who has been under an international arrest warrant representation at both parliament and senate level. Control over forest resources continued to be of religious groups. However, this approach was for war crimes since 2005, had been maintaining In addition, prejudice against Banyamulenge critical importance to the Batwa/Bambuti. In late challenged in 2007, by the case of Mohammed what he describes as the defence of the interests remains entrenched in Kinshasa, including 2007, a leaked report from a World Bank Inspection Hegazy. According to reports, he undertook a court Banyamulenge. The Nkunda uprising began in within the administration. Panel said that the bank had backed the Congolese action to try to get his ID card changed to reflect earnest in December 2006, provoking immediate In Ituri, 2007 saw considerable progress in the government in planning the extension of commercial his new Christian religion. His story was reported in population flight estimated at 370,000 people, as demobilization, disarmament and reintegration of logging in the DRC without consulting with the national media, after which Mr Hegazy faced death the conflict rapidly became a four-cornered one, the six militias that had emerged along ethnic lines Batwa or considering the impact on their threats and went into hiding. Mr Hegazy’s case between Nkunda’s National Congress for the since 1999. Coordinated by the UN and the communities or the environment. Recently, a coalition came amid a debate about apostasy, and its People’s Defence, FDLR bands, Congolese army Congolese armed forces, the initiative achieved a of organizations based around forest peoples groups legitimate punishment. According to Associated units and Maï-Maï militias with little allegiance but major success with the adhesion to the process of has also been lobbying at the UN against what they Press reports, one of ’s most senior clerics, the to themselves. Attempts by the Congolese army to the last of the main militias to have held out regard as a deficient government response to the plight Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa, issued guidance against conquer Nkunda and his force (estimated at against it, the Lendu Nationalist Integrationist of the forest peoples. Following the government’s the killing of apostates – a view which was rejected 6,000–10,000 strong) proved futile. In September Front (FNI). Many of the FNI and other presentation in 2006 of its state party report to the by other religious scholars in Egypt. 2007, an estimated further 170,000 civilians had demobilized fighters were expected to join the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial The minority Coptic Christians, estimated at 5–10 fled fighting. Officials from the UN mission in armed forces. The Ituri conflict has always had a Discrimination (CERD), this grouping replied in per cent of the overall population but concentrated Congo reported locating mass graves of unidentified complex ethnic aspect to it, most obviously in the January 2007, noting that forest peoples had been more heavily in , Alexandria and the south, civilians in areas previously occupied by units of stoking up of mutual hatred between Hema and completely ignored in Kinshasa’s submission. In its remained vulnerable through the year to attacks from Nkunda’s Bravo Brigades. By late 2007, the rebel Lendu from 1999 onwards, the work of local concluding observations issued in August 2007, Islamic extremists. In October 2007, two Copts were leader was calling for peace talks – something that warlords as well as Rwanda’s and Uganda’s CERD recommended that DRC take ‘urgent and murdered at el-Kasheh, south of Cairo. Earlier in the Kabila had previously refused to consider, interference in the region. However, like other adequate measures’ to protect the rights of the Batwa year there were allegations of security force personnel demanding instead that Nkunda integrate his force such regional conflicts in DRC in the past decade, to land. It also urged that there be a moratorium on destroying Coptic graves. There is currently internal into the national army. the violence has not merely been identitarian. As forest lands, that the ancestral lands of the Batwa be debate among Copts over whether to support a The Banyamulenge Tutsi issue is an old one in the elsewhere, the control of resources has been at the registered, and provision should be made for the forest possible presidential succession by Gamal Mubarak, DRC, dating back to the colonial era, with eastern centre of the conflict. On 18 October 2007, the rights of indigenous peoples in domestic legislation. regarded by some Copt leaders as their best guarantee Congolese Tutsis being marginalized under the International Criminal Court formally indicted of safety in the face of the Muslim Brotherhood. former Congolese head of state, . , one of the key military leaders Egypt Although Banyamulenge were closely associated with of the FNI, for crimes against humanity, among Minorities’ right to freedom of religion continued to Eritrea his successor, Laurent Kabila, this relationship soured other charges, after he was handed over by the give rise to concerns in 2007. The minority Baha’i, The of religious minorities in Eritrea rapidly in the 1999–2001 period, which ended with Congolese authorities. numbering approximately 2,000 at most, received a remains a major concern. In its annual International Kabila’s by one of his own Swahili- Among minority populations suffering particularly further setback in their attempts to be officially Religious Freedom report 2007, the US State speaking guards. This resulted in yet more popular from the continuing conflict in the east are the recognized when the Supreme Administrative Court Department said that the Eritrean government’s anger in the capital Kinshasa, with Banyamulenge Congolese Batwa/Bambuti. In South Kivu, reversed a lower court’s decision earlier in the year to record on religious freedom had deteriorated even being aggressively stereotyped as ‘non-Congolese’ and continuing attacks by Rwandan rebel forces in the allow them to be officially registered for identity further. There are reportedly 1,900 prisoners held for an effective fifth column for neighbouring Rwanda – countryside outside have had a grave effect purposes. The result of this ruling was that Baha’is their religious beliefs in this small African nation.

66 Africa State of the World’s Africa State of the World’s 67 Minorities 2008 Minorities 2008 The country’s population of 3.7 million is Ethiopia park by asking them to sign documents with a security crackdown in the desert Ogaden region. roughly half Christian and half Muslim. Since Since a new constitution was established in 1995 thumb-print. Bordering Somalia in the south-east, the biggest 1995, the government only officially recognizes following the overthrow of the oppressive In February 2007, the Independent Expert on group in the region is ethnic Somali. four faiths – the Eritrean Orthodox Church (the regime, the country has followed a unique system of Minority Issues, Gay McDougall, published her In April 2007, a sputtering rebellion by the biggest church in Eritrea with an estimated 1.7 ethnically based federalism. But the question of report on Ethiopia, following a country visit. Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) flared million adherents), Islam, the Lutheran Church whether this structure actually helps minorities Among her findings were that some smaller into life again. Rebels attacked an oil installation and the Roman Catholic Church. In May 2002, realize their rights, or whether it has been subverted minority communities were considered to be on the killing 74, including some Chinese workers. the government insisted that all unregistered by the present government to consolidate its hold verge of disappearing, due to ‘factors including Security forces responded by blockading areas groups stop operating until they had obtained on power, is now of urgent concern to minority resettlement, displacement, conflict, assimilation, suspected to be rebel strongholds, denying official approval. According to research undertaken rights activists. cultural dilution, environmental factors and loss of international aid agencies access to supply by the UK-based Royal Institute of International The crackdown against opponents of the regime land’. She noted that, ‘An unknown number of humanitarian relief. Affairs (RIIA) at Chatham House, the Baha’i faith, following the elections in 2005, the 2006 invasion minority communities are believed to have already Food prices soared, livestock prices halved. Many the Faith Mission Church, the Orthodox of Somalia and its subsequent fall-out, as well as the disappeared completely.’ people were forced to flee their homes – amid Presbyterian Church and Seventh Day Adventists 2007 heavy-handed security action in the Ogaden, While praising certain aspects of government witness testimony that the government was burning did manage to register, but have not been allowed have set the scene for an increasingly repressive and policy – such as the re-establishment of local villages. Worryingly, the Ethiopian army was said to to operate publicly. intolerant atmosphere. languages in schools and local administrations – she be targeting certain sub-clans as supporters of the However, many evangelical churches have not Two major assessments of the Ethiopian also found much that was of concern. She reported ONLF, and to be acting against them been registered. According to RIIA, these have government’s recent record came in 2007 – one a perception that the political system was biased in indiscriminately. As a result, hundreds of thousands reportedly been growing rapidly in Eritrea – from the UN committee which monitors the favour of ethnic parties created by the ruling were left dependent on food aid. There were also although exact membership figures are hard to come implementation of the International Convention on faction, rather than genuinely representative reports of abuses by ONLF – including by – and their followers have been particularly the Elimination of all forms of Racial movements. punishments for civilians who failed to provide food targeted by the government. In September 2007, the Discrimination (ICERD) and the other from the In a visit to the Gambella, where an estimated or shelter. BBC interviewed an Eritrean evangelical Christian UN’s Independent Expert on Minority Issues. 424 people were killed by Ethiopian security forces The crisis in the Ogaden is intrinsically linked in who described the torture techniques which had CERD’s report – issued without the cooperation and other groups in 2003, McDougall found many to the wider upheaval in the Horn of Africa region, been used on him – including being tied in a of the Ethiopian government – gave an extremely Anuak still being held in prison without trial. She the epicentre of which is Somalia. Although the position known as ‘the Helicopter’ for 136 hours. critical assessment of the country’s record, noting also highlighted the case of the Karayu pastoralists, existence of the ONLF precedes the emergence of Another victim reported that he was held for 12 that, among other things, it was ‘alarmed’ at who had been displaced from their traditional land the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) in Somalia, months, forced to do manual labour and, on one information that military and police forces have and water sources in because of the strategic links between the ONLF and the ICU have occasion, ‘suspended by his arms from a tree in the been ‘systematically targeting’ certain ethnic groups, establishment of a national park, and industries, in been reported, while the Ethiopian government’s form of a crucifixion’. such as the Anuak and the Oromo. the area. bitter foe – the government of Isaias Afewerki in The ‘Open Doors’ Christian charity reported that It had – it said – received information about Among her key recommendations were that the Eritrea – is widely believed to be actively supporting at least four Christians had died in 2007, following ‘summary executions, rape of women and girls, government take steps to depoliticize ethnicity, and the ONLF. severe ill-treatment at the hands of the authorities. arbitrary detention, torture, humiliations and promote the policy of inclusion, and that urgent Nevertheless, the Horn of Africa Group based at Jehovah’s Witnesses are treated with particular destruction of property and crops of members of steps be taken to protect the existence of some small the Royal Institute for International Affairs, said the harshness because their faith prohibits them from those communities’. minority groups. Moreover, she also called for an government’s response was disproportionate and undertaking Eritrea’s compulsory military service, in Other concerns expressed by CERD included the inclusive national conference to examine the counter-productive. Its report, Conflict in the some cases being held without trial for up to 12 lack of information on minority representation in federalist system. Ogaden and its Regional Dimensions (September years. local and national government, in the judiciary and The Independent Expert’s report was roundly 2007) concluded: ‘Ethiopian action is leading to a In a rare success, the prominent gospel singer security services, and the establishment of national rejected by the Ethiopian government in its response revival of Somali national sentiment and a sense of Helen Berhane was released in November 2006, parks without the participation or informed consent to the Human Rights Commission, which said it common destiny that cuts across the clan divide.’ after an international campaign led by Amnesty of the indigenous peoples. was ‘littered with information based on hearsay and International. She had been held for two and a half The latter point followed criticism of the transfer unfounded allegations’. Meanwhile, the unfolding Kenya years – most of the time in a metal shipping of the Omo National Park in south-west Ethiopia, crisis in the southern Ogaden region left the The fall-out from the late 2007 elections plunged container, which served as a cell. In late 2007 she from government to private control. Indigenous impression that the Independent Expert’s Kenya into chaos. Amid widespread allegations of was granted asylum in Denmark. peoples’ organizations – including Survival recommendations for political inclusiveness had rigging, President Kibaki and his Party of National Even followers of the officially recognized International – complained that the deal had gone gone unheeded. Unity claimed victory in the closely fought elections religions have not been immune from harassment through without prior consultation with the In September 2007, a public plea by the – an outcome vehemently disputed by the and ill-treatment. The deposed Patriarch of the pastoralist tribes in the area, and that the international aid agencies, the International opposition Orange Democratic Movement. The Eritrean Orthodox Church, Abune Antonios, has government had obtained ‘consent’ of the Federation of the Red Cross and Médicins sans tribal fault-lines in Kenyan society were exposed been under house arrest for over two years. communities to the boundary demarcation of the Frontières, galvanized world attention on the when competing political interests overlapped with

68 Africa State of the World’s Africa State of the World’s 69 Minorities 2008 Minorities 2008 ethnic differences. President Kibaki and many of his According to the Kenya Land Alliance, the latest Below: Tuareg man in the Sahara desert, Mali. delivered by the Constitutional Court in late 2006, close associates are Kikuyu, while his main rival scheme was fraught with ‘massive irregularities’ and Christien Jaspars/Panos Pictures found in favour of the Il Chamus community from Raila Odinga is a Luo. The Luos – who make up 14 left 1,400 people ‘homeless, landless, and with no Lake Baringo in the Rift Valley. This pastoralist tribe per cent of the Kenyan population – have long seen means of livelihood’. Leaders of the indigenous Kenyan parliament. In view of the post-election had complained that, under the current electoral themselves as being denied the leadership of the Ogiek forest-dwelling tribe complained that their crisis, however, it is unclear when this will happen. arrangements, it was almost impossible to elect an country. Kikuyus – who make up 20 per cent of the ancestral rights to live in Chepyuk forest had been Previous experience suggests that the entrenched MP from their group. population – have dominated the country politically ignored and called for the scheme to be nullified. interests of the Kenyan business and political elite Activists believe the court verdict could help other and economically since independence, and have It was in this context that the Sabaot Lands may find many of the proposals unpalatable, minorities – such as the Boni, Endorois, Nubians traditionally been the target of widespread Defence Force (SLDF) emerged. Although its although it is now evident that, if Kenya is to and – secure better political representation. resentment on the part of the smaller tribes. origins, strength and precise motives remain unclear, overcome its current divisions, the settlement of Yobo Rutin, from the Centre for Minority Rights Alarmingly, post-election anger has mutated into the SLDF publicly states that it wants to reclaim historic land grievances will be an essential Development, says they pressed the Electoral the settling of old scores. In the Rift Valley, historic lost territory, including its ancestral lands. By late component of any road-map to recovery. Commission of Kenya and the government for the grievances against land allocations led to the mass 2007, it had carried out the burning of property The political chaos is also a setback for minority redrawing of electoral boundaries and the creation targeting of Kikuyu farmers by the Kalenjin (around and attacks in major towns such as Kitale, and rights campaigners, who had hoped that progress of special interest seats. But both measures got 11 per cent of the population), who regard the land driven tens of thousands of people from their could be made on implementing the landmark Il nowhere in advance of the hotly contested end-of- in the Rift Valley as theirs. In western Kenya, the homes. At the end of October 2007, in a series of Chamus decision in the Kenyan courts. This ruling, year poll. Kikuyu minority also found itself under attack; gruesome attacks, six people were beheaded, Despite this disappointment, the Endorois, whose many fled, fearing for their lives. In a disturbing reportedly by the SLDF. Many of the victims have ancestral home is around Lake Bogoria in the Rift escalation of the violence, the Kikuyu criminal been from rival Sabaot sub-clans, others were settlers Valley, continued their fight to realize their rights. militia, Mungiki , struck back around the town of from other tribes seen as ‘incomers’. MRG has been working closely with this Naivasha in the Rift Valley, targeting Luo and tribes In March 2007, the Ogiek issued a public plea for community, who were displaced from their seen to support the opposition. By the end of help, saying that 20 Ogiek had been killed in the traditional territory when the area was declared a January, hundreds had been killed in the violence, violence and appealing to the international wildlife sanctuary in 1973. Attempts to seek redress with tens of thousands displaced. Political leaders on community for help. Humanitarian agencies say the at a national level have failed, so the Endorois have both sides of the divide had no clear plan to pull conditions endured by the displaced are dire. taken their case to the African Commission on Kenya back from the brink, despite high-level Without a chance to harvest crops, displaced Human and Peoples’ Rights. If successful, their case diplomatic efforts led by former UN Secretary- families face the prospect of malnutrition, and those will have implications for many other minorities in General Kofi Annan. who have sought refuge on the cooler, higher slopes similar situations across the continent. Earlier in 2007, control over Kenya’s land of Mount Elgon are more susceptible to disease. Election season also focused attention on the resources was identified as one of the ‘most pressing In August 2007, Kenya’s draft National Land Muslim minority in Kenya. Although there is no issues on the public agenda’ by the UN Special Policy was made public. This policy is an attempt to official figure, the total number of Muslims in Rapporteur for Indigenous Issues, Rodolfo address the explosive issue of land ownership and Kenya is put at anything between 10 to 20 per cent Stavenhagen, in his February 2007 country report land tenure, which has dogged the country since of the population. This group has long-standing on Kenya. His assessment, based on a visit to Kenya independence. As the fall-out from the election complaints about discriminatory treatment. Since undertaken at the end of the previous year, painted demonstrates, the colonial land policies, laws and 9/11 these have been aggravated by anti-terrorist a bleak picture of the situation of Kenya’s pastoralist, administrative structure have given rise to activities, which have led to about arbitrary, hunter-gatherer and forest tribes. Excluded from entrenched corrupt practices, gross social and unlawful detention and torture. Security sweeps in political and economic power, these peoples have economic inequalities and, ultimately, conflict. coastal cities such as Mombasa have often seemed seen their land seized, their resources plundered and Potentially, this new draft policy – which was counter-productive. The issues rose to the surface in their way of life become ever more untenable. formulated after a wide-ranging consultative process 2007, partly because of the dislodging of the Islamic Since early 2007, tensions had also flared in the – could redefine the relationship between the Courts Union in Somalia. The Kibaki government is Mount Elgon region in western Kenya, as a long- country’s marginalized minorities and the state. widely believed to have ‘rendered’ suspected Islamic standing dispute over land rights boiled over. After Indeed, it includes a special section on minorities, extremists back to Ethiopia. Amid considerable months of violence, an estimated 300 were dead, pastoralist groups and coastal peoples. Some of the confusion, it was claimed that some of those handed and 100,000 displaced in late 2007. The origins of policy’s provisions are: to draw up a legislative over were of Kenyan nationality and therefore the conflict lie in the displacement of the framework to secure the rights of minorities; to should have been tried under Kenyan law. In a bid pastoralist Sabaot people from their traditional convert government-owned land on the coastal strip to keep the Muslim vote on-side in a tight electoral lands by the British colonial authorities, and into community land; and, crucially, to recognize race, President Kibaki appointed an official subsequent botched attempts by the Kenyan pastoralism as a legitimate land use and production committee to investigate alleged discrimination government to resettle them. system. The document has yet to be debated by the against Kenyan Muslims by the government.

70 Africa State of the World’s Africa State of the World’s 71 Minorities 2008 Minorities 2008 Mali/Niger Human Development Indicators by main language groups Unrest continues among the Tuareg populations of the A new president was elected in Mauritania, in a Sahelian and Saharan north. The Tuareg – who historic poll in March 2007, signalling the return to Life Gross Annual average represent approximately 5 per cent of Mali’s 13.5 democratic rule. Up until 2005, the country had expectancy at rate, +15 enrolment ratio, adjusted per million population – have traditionally opposed the been ruled by the strong-man Maaouiya Ould Taya birth (years) years (%) 6–24 years (%) capita income (N$) central government in the captital , for quarter of a century. The new president, Sidi 2001 2001 2001 2003/2004 complaining of political and economic Ould Sheikh Abdallahi, was a former cabinet Namibia 49 84 66 10,358 marginalization. Frequent in recent years minister under Taya. However, he quickly indicated Khoisan 52 47 34 3,263 have contributed to growing hardship among these his intention to break with the past, especially over pastoralist communities. Following a Tuareg- two issues: black Mauritanian refugees living in Rukavango 43 87 61 4,137 spearheaded revolt in 1990–96, a decade of uneasy camps in Senegal and Mali, and slavery. Caprivian languages 43 91 60 7,728 peace has recently seen two major outbreaks of An estimated 70,000 black Mauritanians were Nama/Damara 52 87 57 6,366 insurgency or less well-defined violence. In early 2006, driven from the country in 1989, in what ostensibly Oshiwambo 48 94 71 7,218 a former rebel, Ibrahima Ag Bahanga, subsequently started as a border dispute about grazing rights. integrated into the Malian army, deserted his post However, the expulsions were widely seen as a part Otjiherero 58 86 59 11,478 accusing the government of neglecting the northern of a racially motivated campaign against Setswana 67 92 65 12,793 region around Kidal. This led to an Algerian-brokered Mauritania’s black citizens, based mainly in the 62 99 66 28,684 agreement in July, providing for boosted development south. According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), initiatives for the region. More recently, in August tensions between the black southerners and the Arab English 63 100 67 66,898 2007, there was a further outbreak of violence led by and Berber northerners date back to before German 79 100 79 87,649 men loyal to Ibrahima Ag Bahanga. They kidnapped independence. In colonial days, the more settled Source: UNDP (2007): Trends In Human Development and Poverty in Namibia at least two dozen army personnel near the north- lifestyles of the black minority (who make up eastern desert settlement of Tendjeret. Although this roughly one-third of the population) allowed them to when Arab and Berber tribes launched slave raids 1960s. They are currently the only San community appears to have been a one-off series of events linked to do better educationally, and to dominate the civil against the African population. Those enslaved were without any communal lands. to the cross-border smuggling trade in the region, the service. However, after independence, the Arab and converted to Islam and have been treated as A report from the United Nations Development has viewed northern Mali as an area Berber northerners took control, purged the inheritable property. While the new law has been Programme (UNDP), dramatically illustrated that the vulnerable to terrorism in recent years and has southerners from positions of influence and sought welcomed by campaigners, it has also been pointed San people had borne the brunt of Namibia’s conducted training exercises with Malian forces. to Arabize the country. Since 1989, some black out that, as with previous attempts to introduce worsening poverty and the HIV/Aids epidemic. Not Across the border in Niger, there remains a state of Mauritanians have drifted back home, but others tougher punishments, much will depend on the only did the San (identified as Khoisan speakers in high tension between the government and the Tuareg- have languished in poor conditions in refugee camps authorities’ willingness to enforce the law, if the the table above), have the lowest incomes as a group, led Niger Movement for Justice (MNJ), including over the border in Senegal and Mali, and were practice is to be eradicated. but their life expectancy has also dropped more firefights with government forces leading to several regarded as an encumbrance by these countries’ sharply than that of any of the other groups surveyed. deaths. The MNJ has repeatedly declared that northern governments. However, on 12 November 2007, Namibia Namibia has one of the worst rates of HIV/Aids Niger is ‘a war zone’ and has attempted to target the following the election of the new government, The land rights of the San came under scrutiny in infection in the world. The study revealed that, in region’s uranium extraction industry, including an Mauritania and Senegal signed a deal which could Namibia in 2007 in a highly critical report terms of income disparity, the country also ranked as attack on installations at Imou-Araren in April and the allow the repatriation of 12,000 refugees, compiled by the Legal Assistance Centre (LAC), one of the worst in the world. And the poverty kidnapping of a Chinese contractor in July. The MNJ administered under the auspices of the Office of the based in . experienced by the San community was comparable has also accused the uranium sector, spearheaded by UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). There are estimated to be about 30,000 San in to that in the world’s most deprived countries. the French conglomerate Areva, of long-term neglect The agreement seemed to mark the end of Africa’s Namibia, belonging to the Hai//om, Ju/hoansi and The deep-seated prejudice faced by the San in of the environment and of the safety and interest of most protracted – but there will also Khwe sub-groups – and, since colonial times, they Namibia was highlighted by complaints over the local, largely Tuareg, populations. In both countries, be difficulties ahead, especially where the return of have been pushed off their traditional lands without treatment of San rape victims. A traditional leader, there is resentment towards Tuaregs from sedentary land and property is concerned. adequate compensation. The LAC pointed out that Michael Isung Simana, in the Omaheke region in and southern populations. The marginalization of the New legislation criminalizing slavery in the government land policy unveiled in 1998 had eastern Namibia, reportedly told the New Era Tuaregs is likely to be aggravated by the continuing Mauritania was swiftly passed by the new prioritized the needs of the San, but thus far had newspaper in October 2007 about the high desertification of the Sahel, a process likely to continue parliament. Although slavery had been banned in failed to deliver. The Hai//om in particular incidence of rape of San women by members of as global warming begins to bite. In 2007 Mauritania for over 20 years, there had been no complained that the 2007 centenary celebrations to other communities. He attributed this to warned that changed rainfall patterns in Niger are criminal penalties for those flouting the ban. SOS mark the establishment of Namibia’s premier Etosha ‘persistent negative stereotypes, which place a contributing to worsening desertification, which, for Slavery estimates that there could be as many as National Park, ignored the bitter experience of their lower value on the dignity of San women, than indigenous people like the Tuaregs, means massive 600,000 slaves in Mauritania. It is a deeply people. Now thought to number 9,000, the other women’. Simana also accused the police of losses in livestock and food insecurity. engrained practice, dating back hundreds of years, Hai//om had been expelled from the reserve in the not treating the rape of San women seriously

72 Africa State of the World’s Africa State of the World’s 73 Minorities 2008 Minorities 2008 enough, and of failing to vigorously investigate and minority groups. It is the site of rich oil Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign suffered in the genocide – it is estimated that a third allegations or gather adequate forensic evidence and natural gas reserves both offshore and on land. State of (MASSOB), that Ibos would never of their community was wiped out. (see also Botswana ). But ethnic groups have protested about the ‘realize their political aspirations with the Nigerian However, even before that, the Batwa had seen environmental degradation and about the failure of federation’. However, there was a question-mark over their ancestral forests cleared. Some were able to Nigeria the central government and the international the MASSOB’s tactics, after a ‘sit-at-home-strike’ survive but many had become landless beggars, In April 2007, Africa’s most populous nation held companies to share the oil wealth with failed to mobilize widespread support, showing that whose traditional forests were taken over for general elections, widely denounced as both local communities. Little money goes into schools or many Ibos did not want to publicly associate agriculture, commercial forestry plantations and fraudulent and incompetent. Even so, the outcome hospitals. Public services are in a pitiable condition. themselves with the separatist cause. wildlife conservation areas. When it comes to was largely accepted by the electorate. The winner of In recent years, disaffection has given way to The 1960s Ibo separatist leader, the now-elderly education, health and other social services, Batwa the presidential race, Umaru Yar’Adua – the chosen militancy. Kidnappings of local and international oil Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, contested the fare worse than either Hutus or Tutsis. As the NGO successor of the outgoing – has workers have risen steadily, with the militias even 2007 presidential elections, coming sixth. He later Forest Peoples Programme notes in a 2006 a tough task ahead of him, managing this religious resorting to the kidnapping of children. The told the BBC that the Ibo had more reason than submission to the Human Rights Committee, the and ethnically diverse giant, whose population situation is complicated by the links that the militias ever to seek independence, basing his comments on protection of many of the Batwa’s human rights is includes an estimated 250 ethnic groups . are alleged to have with powerful criminal and the widespread electoral irregularities. Throughout recognized neither ‘by law [n]or in fact’. Obasanjo’s tenure was scarred by inter-communal political networks. The gangs are known to be 2007, there were protests from Ibo associations that When the African Peer Review Panel looked at the fighting at the cost of thousands of lives. The actively engaged in oil ‘bunkering’ – stealing oil from Chief Ralf Uwazuruike, leader of MASSOB, situation in Rwanda, its 2005 report concluded that entrenched nature of the conflicts in Nigeria – as well pipelines and using the proceeds to buy arms. remained in jail – although other separatist or rebel the Rwandan authorities appear to be adopting a as the inability of the authorities to provide lasting Recently, there have been concerns that the oil giants leaders had been released. Uwazuruike and other policy of assimilation. This was vehemently denied by solutions – was illustrated by the resurgence of may be further aggravating the problem by paying alleged MASSOB supporters were arrested in 2005 . In its 2007 report to the African Commission, fighting between the Tiv and Kuteb communities in off the militants to ‘protect’ their facilities. The grip and charged with treason. But at the end of October Rwanda once again resisted the use of the term Benue state and Taraba states in Central Nigeria. of the militants on the area was illustrated in August 2007 Uwazuruike was released from detention. His ‘indigenous’ saying ‘Rwanda is not a country where Hundreds were reported displaced, and dozens killed. 2007, when fighting rocked – message of independence for Biafra – however – native populations can be identified in the Western The dispute over land rights of the various Nigeria’s main oil city. There were running battles in remained the same. IRIN reported him saying: ‘All meaning of the term’, noting instead that, as the communities in the area has been simmering for the street after government troops tried to arrest a we want is our Biafra. We want to secede.’ national programme against poverty was targeted at years, with violence peaking in 2001, when hundreds prominent Delta militia leader. Criminality is alleged the poorest, then communities that have been died. Many were killed by the army in reprisal attacks on the side of the military too, with accusations that Rwanda ‘historically marginalized’ would be the first to benefit. against the Tiv community, after Tiv militants killed local military officials are involved in selling oil to The Batwa community in Rwanda received a set- 19 soldiers who had been deployed in the area to Eastern Europe in exchange for weapons. back in 2007. Following a long-running dispute Somalia quell the fighting. In November 2007, in a highly In this context, the new president appointed with the government, the main Batwa organization, The brutal bout of warfare which followed last year’s unusual move, the army issued a formal apology to Goodluck Jonathan – an Ijaw – as his deputy. the Community of Indigenous People of Rwanda invasion by Ethiopia, and the subsequent ouster of the Tiv community. Condemned by some as Jonathan has already been targeted twice for (CAURWA), was forced to change its name as the the Islamic Courts Union, means that, for the inadequate because it was not tied to compensation assassination. The government, meanwhile, released government refused to renew its charity licence until second year in a row, Somalia tops MRG’s Peoples for the victims’ families, it was nevertheless welcomed the detained leader of Niger Delta People’s it had dropped the word ‘indigenous’ from its title. under Threat (PUT) table. PUT is a predictive tool, by others as a sign that the Nigerian army was at last Volunteer Force, Mujahid Dokubo-Asari, and the Since the 1994 genocide, when the ruling elite of forecasting the places in the world where civilian taking human rights issues seriously. vice-president embarked upon a series of meetings the majority Hutu group stoked up murderous protection will be worst in 2008, and where people When he took power, President Yar’Adua with leaders of the different communities in the hatred against minority Tutsis, ethnicity has been a are most at risk of mass murder, genocide or other identified the crisis in the Niger Delta as one of his Delta. The main militant group in the Niger Delta, difficult and sensitive area in Rwanda. The Rwandan extreme forms of violence. This means that, however top priorities. In November 2007 he unveiled a the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger government has prohibited identification along bad 2007 was, 2008 in Somalia is likely to be worse. ‘master plan’ to develop the region. According to Delta (MEND), which claims to represent the ethnic lines. Setting the over-riding goal as Already the situation is catastrophic. In November IRIN, this involves doubling the budget of the interests of the Ijaw community, called a ceasefire reconciliation, an official from the Ministry of Justice 2007, UNHCR announced that the total number of Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) in which held for a few months from June. But by the told IRIN in 2006 that ‘ethnic divisions have only people displaced has been a ‘staggering’ 1 million. 2008. The NDDC’s chairman then proclaimed that end of the year the group had resumed attacks. caused conflicts between the peoples of the country’. Human rights groups complained that all sides were the Niger Delta would be ‘Africa’s most prosperous, International Crisis Group (ICG) in May 2007 However, for the marginalized Batwa community responsible for indiscriminate attacks on civilians, peaceful and pleasant region by 2020’. It will be said that the failure of the electoral process has – historically discriminated against by both Hutus mass arrests and looting. Although Somalia has hard to match the rhetoric with the reality because deepened the separatist sentiment in the south-east. and Tutsis – recognition of its distinct identity has experienced over a decade of since the fall of of the worsening problems in the region. In a year that marked the fortieth anniversary of the been extremely important. Without it, it will be Siad Barre, the current fighting is particularly The Niger Delta – a lush region of mangrove outbreak of the Biafran war, ICG said that, perhaps extremely hard to tackle the multiple forms of perilous because of the internationalization of the swamps, rainforest and swampland – is home to 6 more than in any other region, the poll in the Ibo discrimination this small group – estimated at conflict. The involvement of external actors – both million people including the , Dioubu, heartland was ‘poorly conducted and mindlessly 33,000 – faces, or to maintain what remains of their regional governments, like Eritrea and Ethiopia, and Etche, Ijaw, Kalibari, Nemba (Brass), Nembe, Ogoni rigged’, boosting the position of the separatist group, rich and distinctive cultural traditions. Batwa too the US – has meant that the ramifications of this

74 Africa State of the World’s Africa State of the World’s 75 Minorities 2008 Minorities 2008 warfare are spreading beyond Somalia. This has Sudan Darfur Kordofan, and the North and the East of Sudan potentially catastrophic implications for civilians in In Sudan in 2007 the position of minorities The conflict in Darfur is roughly said to pit ‘African’ In August 2007 a Darfuri rebel group attacked the the region, but specifically for minorities – both worsened. In a country which is home to more than farmers (the Fur, Masalit, Zaghawa and other, town of Wad Banda in the neighbouring province of inside and outside Somalia’s borders. The conflict in 56 ethnic communities, and over 600 sub-ethnic smaller ethnic groups) against ‘Arab’ . This Kordofan, killing around 40 people, most of them Somalia has already been linked to a 2007 upsurge of groups, the relations between different minorities has always been an overly simplistic explanation, but from the police. This crystallized fears that the Darfur fighting in the Ethiopian Ogaden region, with ethnic are extremely complex. However, the primary in 2007 the picture in Darfur darkened even war would begin to spread to other disaffected regions. Somali civilians bearing the brunt of the violence. difficulty is that of governance. Successive further, as allegiances started to fracture and shift. As analysts noted, as in Darfur, the marginalized, Sensitivities over discriminatory treatment of Muslims governments in Khartoum, including the current At the start of the fighting in 2003, there were neglected status of Kordofan, with high levels of in Kenya have been exacerbated by allegations that one, have pursued a policy of disenfranchising two main rebel groups. Now, there are over a dozen unemployment, made it ripe territory for rebellion. the Kenyan government ‘rendered’ some Kenyans minorities, while concentrating the economic and – some sponsored by regional governments, such as Similarly, in July 2007, the International Crisis suspected of involvement in the Islamic Courts political power in the hands of narrow elite based in Chad, Eritrea and . The fracturing of the Group reported the growing restiveness in the north Union to Ethiopia, instead of trying them in their the capital. Marginalization has, in turn, fuelled rebels is partly a consequence of the ill-conceived among the Nubian and Manassir peoples over home country. conflict – historically in the south, among the Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA), signed by one rebel unpopular plans to build hydro-electric dams on Because of the fighting, it is extremely difficult to peoples of mainly Christian and animist traditions, group and the government in 2006. Struck under their traditional lands. The dams would cause obtain up-to-date information about the fate of more recently in Darfur in the west and Beja in the international pressure – in particular from the US massive disruption of local communities, and some Somalia’s small, vulnerable minorities: at the best of east. And in 2007 new flashpoints emerged in and UK – the DPA actually intensified the fighting – particularly among the Nubians – fear that the times, information about these groups is difficult to Kordofan , in the heart of the country, and in the on the ground, as former rebel allies took up arms projects have the covert aim of destroying their come by. But if past patterns of violence are repeated, north among the Nubian and Manassir peoples. against each other, while the government continued ancient traditions and cultures. Somali minority communities will suffer greatly. its military campaign, under the guise of supporting The Los Angeles Times reported from the area in According to , the Somali The Comprehensive Peace Agreement the peace agreement. 2007, saying a rebel group calling itself the Kush minorities comprise principally the ‘African’ The biggest body-blow to the prospect of a new, Another key development was the splintering of Liberation Front had been formed, after security Bantu/Jarir, who are mostly landless labourers; the more inclusive Sudan in 2007 was the prospect of unity among the Arab Janjaweed militia. In January forces had opened fire on a Nubian in the Benadiri/Rer Hamar urban traders of Middle Eastern the unravelling of the Comprehensive Peace 2007, various militia – once allies – turned on each northern town of Sebu. One rebel leader reportedly origin; and the smaller, dispersed Gaboye caste-based Agreement (CPA). This keynote agreement, signed other in an outbreak of fighting just outside Nyala identified the need to get rid of ‘the Arabs’ as a minorities, who are generally employed as metal- in 2005, brought an end to the war between the in South Darfur. This led some Darfuris from Arab prerequisite to building a new Sudan. workers, leather-workers, hairdressers, herbalists and rebels of the South and the Islamic government in tribes to seek refuge in enormous aid camps for the Meanwhile the situation in the east of the country others. There are other smaller minorities, such as the the North. Although not perfect, the CPA contains first time, heightening tensions there immensely. remains fragile. The Darfur uprising was followed in Ashraf and Shikhal Muslim religious communities, provisions of critical importance to minorities, Aid workers in Darfur, have reported that these 2005 by a rebellion in the eastern region, when the Bajuni fishing people and remote hunter-gatherer including (1) a national census, which would have developments have hardened ethnic divisions as, in Beja Congress joined up with a smaller groups. What these groups have in common is their helped accurately determine the ethnic composition times of great uncertainty, people have sought group, the Rashaida Free Lions, to form the ‘Eastern vulnerability, as they fall outside Somalia’s clan-based of the country, (2) national elections by 2009, protection from their tribal groups. Although the Front’. The fighting there ended in October 2006, structure. They do not benefit from the protections which may have increased the political international peace effort was re-invigorated in with the negotiation of a CPA-inspired power-sharing of war-lords and militias. But they are also vulnerable representation of minorities and (3) a referendum 2007, there is no doubt that the task of securing a deal, but this has yet to be fully implemented. Until to increased risk of rape, attack, abduction and on self-determination for the South by 2011. lasting deal is immeasurably more difficult now it is, the threat of another uprising remains having their property seized by criminals in an All of these were thrown into doubt when the compared with two years ago. The UN Security increased atmosphere of lawlessness. Equally, when former rebel movement, the Sudanese People’s Council finally authorized deployment of a Uganda some semblance of calm does return, they have little Liberation Movement (SPLM) announced it was 26,000-strong peacekeeping force – with most of Peace negotiations to end the long-running rebellion chance of gaining compensation for their losses, again withdrawing from the Government of National the troops drawn from Africa – although how easy by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) continued, because they fall outside the clan structure. Unity (GoNU) in October 2007. It accused the it will be to deploy, given Khartoum’s previous while security in the north improved through 2007. An Amnesty International Report in 2005 stated government of reneging on key provisions in the history of prevarication and obstruction, remains The 20-year civil war has devastated the lives – and that the majority of over 300,000 internally CPA – including the re-deployment of troops, and to be seen. livelihoods – of the Acholi people of the north. But displaced persons in several parts of Somalia are the demarcation of North/South border, and status Meanwhile, the intolerable situation on the ground by September 2007, in a tangible sign of progress, the members of minority groups. It said: ‘They subsist of the oil-rich territory of Abyei. Although the in Darfur is marked by upsurges of unpredictable first refugee camps began to close, as families finally in mainly unregulated settlements in abject SPLM later rejoined the GoNU, the incident violence. In October 2007, 10 African Union troops began to return home. In October 2007, for the first conditions, with international relief assistance exposed the fragility of the CPA. If it does were killed in the town of Haskanita in North Darfur time in 20 years, two commanders of the LRA flew reportedly often diverted and stolen by members of eventually collapse, then analysts predict – their assailants rumoured to be a splinter rebel into Entebbe to consult on the ongoing peace talks. local clans.’ The same report also noted that the catastrophic consequences – not only would there groups. Within days of the attack, the government At the height of the insurgency, some 1.8 million international agencies involved in relief distribution be the outbreak of a new, more deadly phase of the had responded by flattening the town, leaving only a people were living in camps in the north. While the were poorly informed about the special risks faced North–South war, but also the prospects of settling few buildings standing, and driving out the town’s peace process holds out the prospect of ending the by minorities during times of insecurity. Darfur would recede even further. inhabitants – numbering several thousand. marginalization of the Acholi, Oxfam reported in

76 Africa State of the World’s Africa State of the World’s 77 Minorities 2008 Minorities 2008 – left large parts of the country inundated. The based – held talks under the auspices Michael Kuskus is a pastoralist from ‘In 1998 we started to ask people to group Karamoja region in north-eastern Uganda – home of the UN in New York for the first time in ten the Karamoja province in north- together to provide them with loans. A good of the Karamajong pastoralists – was one of the years. This followed a UN Security Council eastern Uganda, and the head of the harvest in 1998 meant loans could be used to worst-affected places. In September it was reported resolution 1754 in April, which called for the two Karamoja Agro- purchase food stock that could be stored to be that the area had been totally cut off from food parties to hold unconditional talks to achieve ‘a Pastoral used later in periods of drought. supplies. Michael Kuskus of the Karamoja Agro- mutually-acceptable political solution providing for Development ‘When food is plentiful, we encourage people Pastoral Development Programme complained of the self-determination of the people of Western Programme. His to sell their livestock (prices of livestock are sharp rises in food prices and hoarding by Sahara’. It remains unclear whether the 2007 community is higher when food is plentiful) to purchase food unscrupulous traders. This region is already the contacts have yielded anything positive, although already working out stock and to save their money. This helps them poorest and most underdeveloped in the country, more discussions are scheduled for 2008. However, ways to adapt to diversify their resources, which is what we need and, following the floods, there were fears of in December 2007 the Polisario Front held a party climate change. in times of drought. People need to be able to widespread hunger and the outbreak of epidemics. conference in Tifariti, which is located near a so- make profits so that they can sustain themselves The hardship endured by the Karamajong has called ‘defence wall’ erected by in the 1980s ‘Enormous environmental changes have occurred in the future. intensified in recent years. Like other cattle-herders to repel rebel attacks. The Polisario Front regards it in Karamoja in the past few years. In my ‘Climate change in the future is going to in the East African region, they have been at the a ‘liberated area’. It is only the second time that the childhood, I remember there were lots of forests affect Karamoja very badly. It used to be that we sharp end of climate change. More frequent cycles Polisario have held a conference in the buffer zone, in Karamoja, and some areas were unreachable had rain for six months and it was dry for six of drought have led to greater competition for scarce and Morocco protested to the UN Secretary- because of the thickness of forests. People lived months. It is now eight months of drought and resources; cattle-raiding has accelerated and this has General that the move was a violation of the 1991 in scattered groups. At no time was there only four months with rain. And even this rain is been accompanied by an upsurge of violence. The UN-brokered ceasefire. The dispute may yet sour starvation. spread out and not continuous. ready availability of small arms in the region has led any prospects for forthcoming discussions . ‘Since 1979 rain patterns have been drastically ‘This kind of rain leads to soil erosion, as the to deadly conflict, which has caused hundreds of The Saharawis – of mixed Berber, Arab and black altered and food production and livestock ground does not absorb enough water. This deaths over the past few years. African descent – have long insisted on their right to rearing has been greatly affected as a result. makes grass and crops impossible to grow. We In an attempt to curb the violence, the Ugandan nationhood. Their struggle dates back to colonial Erratic and shorter rains means that the ground are worried that in the next few years the rains government embarked upon a forced disarmament days when they rose up against the European remains dry and nothing can grow. Cattle die. will reduce even further, to only one or two programme in Karamoja. But the way in which the regional powers of and France. Morocco ‘When cattle die the economic livelihood of months a year. policy has been carried out has attracted fierce annexed the territory in 1975 – and its attempt to people is greatly weakened. This leads to cattle ‘This is going to have a huge negative impact criticism. In a stinging report issued in 2006, and impose control over has been rustling and conflicts arise between groups. on us and affect our lifestyle drastically. More followed up in April 2007, the UN Office of the marked by widespread human rights abuses against ‘Since 2000 we have experienced drought people will move away and our communities will High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) the Saharawi people, including ‘disappearances’ and twice. Last year the whole of Karamoja province be splintered, traditions lost. documented grave human rights violations carried torture. The UN mission has been overseeing a did not have food. Coping strategies for our out by the national army, the Ugandan People’s ceasefire in the region since 1991, but with people means having to leave our homes and ‘How much more of this will we be able to take?’ Defence Forces. These included extra-judicial Morocco refusing to allow a referendum on the self- search in the cities and towns for jobs just to get killings of civilians, torture, inhuman and degrading determination issue, and the Polisario Front food to survive. Interview by MRG’s Samia Khan treatment, the rape of a woman, and the widespread insisting on one, progress has been non-existent. destruction of homesteads. There are roughly 165,000 Saharawis in refugee By November 2007, OHCHR noted that there camps in Algeria. Many of them have spent over September 2007 that many Acholi communities environment. The Basongora pointed out that had been a marked improvement in the security and three decades there. were concerned that the peace was fragile and would their traditional pastures had been in the territory human rights situation – following increased efforts quickly unravel in the absence of a signed peace deal. now protected as the Queen Elizabeth National to seek the cooperation of Karamajong Zimbabwe The plight of the country’s pastoralist peoples was Park, but they had been evicted upon its creation communities, and better training of the military in In 2007, the Zimbabwean crisis continued to highlighted by the public row over the invasion of in 1954. human rights standards. But OHCHR continued to accelerate, with grave implications for its citizens Uganda’s flagship nature reserve, the Queen In September, wildlife officials once again tried to call for those who had been responsible for the and for the region. In a September 2007 report, Elizabeth National Park, by the Basongora cattle- evict them. But after claims that excessive force was abuses to be brought to account, and condemned International Crisis Group reported 3,000 herders. There were reportedly several thousand being used, the government eventually offered the the culture of impunity in the armed forces when Zimbabweans per day crossing into , as Basongora with large herds of cattle in the park. Basongora alternative land outside the park. extra-judicial killings and torture occur. well as other Southern African countries. High levels They had crossed over the border from the However this settlement has also proved problematic: of violence continued – targets were political, Democratic Republic of Congo, after being driven there were reports of the forcible removal of small- Western Sahara economic and social. They ranged from teachers, out of the Virunga mountain range. scale farmers to make way for the Basongora. Attempts were made to break the deadlock over students, street vendors and journalists to villagers However, Uganda’s wildlife authorities were The biggest crisis to hit Uganda in 2007 was Western Sahara in 2007. In June 2007, the two trying to sell grain, human rights activists and anxious about damage done to the park flooding. Heavy rainfall – the worst in three decades sides – the Moroccan government and the Algerian- opposition politicians.

78 Africa State of the World’s Africa State of the World’s 79 Minorities 2008 Minorities 2008 As the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum Shona, and do not even speak Ndebele’ (see details, human rights abuses range from torture to www.cidcm.umd.edu/mar). These issues have violations of freedom of expression, movement and become particularly acute since the emergence of association, disappearances, unlawful arrest and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change unlawful detention. The economy continues to be in (MDC); Matabele-land is an opposition stronghold. freefall. According to the BBC in November 2007, MAR reports that in 2002, prior to the elections, the country’s chief statistician indicated that the ZANU-PF allegedly threatened the Ndebele with inflation rate was incalculable, but official reports in starvation, and a document surfaced which allegedly February 2008 put it at near 100,000 per cent. contained a plan to exterminate the Ndebele. In the South African-led quiet diplomacy continued to heightened tensions in the run-up to the spring try to build fences between the main opposition 2008 elections, similar incidents may yet occur. MDC and the Zimbabwe government. By the end The leadership of the MDC – now split – has of the year this approach had not yielded significant been Shona, in the shape of veteran leader, Morgan benefits. President Mugabe continues to enjoy Tsvangirai and now the breakaway leader, Arthur strong support from leaders of regional Mutambara. But there has always been a strong governments, unwilling to criticize the liberation-era contingent of Ndebele in the senior ranks of the leader, despite spreading effects of the country’s MDC. The 2006 split within the MDC further implosion. emphasized the opposition’s ethnic dimensions, with In this atmosphere of crisis, there is a strong risk the Ndebele led by Secretary-General Welshman that existing ethnic and racial tensions could be Ncube generally siding with the Mutambara faction. even more gravely inflamed – especially with Historically, Europeans owned half the arable presidential and parliamentary elections slated for land in country, and the large commercial farms 2008. This is reflected in the MRG’s Peoples under supplied 80 per cent of the national agricultural Threat table (see pp. 161–7), where Zimbabwe is product (Minorities at Risk project, 2000). one of the fastest risers. Although, as indicated However, when the Mugabe government embarked above, the Zimbabwe regime attacks a wide range of on its forcible land seizures policy, ostensibly to Americas targets, two minorities are particularly at risk: the redistribute it to landless black Zimbabweans, this Ndebele and the Europeans. The former particularly group came severely under attack. Many fled the M because there has been a previous episode of mass country – those who remain are still extremely killing, targeted at this community. vulnerable. The white population of Zimbabwe is The Ndebele’s heartland is the south-western vastly reduced as farmers have fled to destinations territory of Matabele-land. In the years, immediately including South Africa, the UK and Australia. Of before and post-independence, divisions between some 4,000 white farmers in the , only around the majority Shona and the minority Ndebele were 400 remained in 2007, and the government evident. The main resistance movements opposing announced that their farms would be taken in the racist regime of Ian Smith were the Ndebele’s August 2007. Many whites have lost everything they ZAPU, led by Joshua Nkomo, and the Shona’s owned. In addition to farmers, white civil servants ZANU, led by . After independence, who worked for the independent Zimbabwean state the Shona-dominated ZANU won the country’s first have been abandoned by their government and left free elections. Mugabe then moved to crush impoverished. Much of the land seized has gone to opposition among the Ndebele, embarking upon individuals connected to the Mugabe elite, rather the ‘Gukurahundi’ pogrom. The killings, which than to the landless. p continued from 1983 to 1987, resulted in an estimated 10,000–20,000 deaths. Nevertheless, discrimination against the Ndebele continued. The Minorities at Risk (MAR) project notes that: ‘There is massive unemployment and general social destitution in the area. Furthermore, although there are no restrictions to high office, civil servants in Matabeleland are disproportionately

80 Africa State of the World’s Minorities 2008