Serious human rights violations persisted across parts of Southern Africa in 2025, entrenching what Human Rights Watch (HRW) calls a pattern of abuse without accountability. The findings appear in the organisation’s World Report 2026.
Angola, eSwatini, Mozambique and Zimbabwe are singled out for the conduct of their security forces, which the report says used excessive, and sometimes deadly, force against protesters, alongside arbitrary arrests and detentions.
Ashwanee Budoo-Scholtz, HRW’s Deputy Africa Director, said the failure to hold perpetrators to account is enabling a climate in which violations continue unchecked.
“We’ve seen security forces in Angola and Mozambique using excessive force and at times even lethal. They have arbitrarily arrested and detained protesters. The other issue we found is that authorities have severely restricted freedom of expression, association and assembly, and attacked journalists and human rights defenders,” she said.
She added that governments are increasingly relying on restrictive laws to stifle dissent. Budoo-Scholtz also criticised the response of regional institutions, saying the African Union and the Southern African Development Community had not done enough to confront the trend.
–ChannelAfrica–
