Every Saturday in Ikoyi, Lagos (Nigeria), a small but steady ritual unfolds behind Nakenoh’s Boulevard mall. TKD Farms Farmers’ Market, founded in 2017, brings together a rotating group of vendors—15 to 20 each week, out of a larger pool of 185. What happens here is more than retail. It’s a working model of what a community-centered economy can look like.
This isn’t a typical market. Vendors don’t just show up, set up, and sell. They interact, adapt, and build relationships that carry beyond the day’s sales. The layout changes weekly—no vendor has a fixed spot. This prevents any one business from monopolizing customer flow and encourages everyone to connect with different neighbors each time.
English-speaking minority refugees caught up in clashes between the military and separatists are stranded in neighbouring country
Amid the sound of children excitedly practising a drama for a forthcoming performance, a yam seller calls to passers by with discounts for their wares. Outside a closed graphic design shop overlooking them from a small hill, Solange Ndonga Tibesa tells the story of being uprooted from her homeland in north-west Cameroon.
In June 2019 she and other travellers were abducted with her three-month-old baby by secessionists, who accused them of supporting the military. Their captors repeatedly hit them with butts of their guns, keeping them in a forest without food or water.
More governments seeking to keep millions of people offline amid conflicts, protests and political instability
Digital blackouts reached a record high in 2024 in Africa as more governments sought to keep millions of citizens off the internet than in any other period over the last decade.
A report released by the internet rights group Access Now and #KeepItOn, a coalition of hundreds of civil society organisations worldwide, found there were 21 shutdowns in 15 African countries, surpassing the existing record of 19 shutdowns in 2020 and 2021.
Those who assume that Karl Marx emphasized only the negative characteristics of capitalism such as alienation, crisis, and exploitation are mistaken. Indeed, throughout his intellectual career – in philosophic, journalistic, historical, and economic writings – Marx stressed the creative and progressive features of capital. His social theory makes no sense unless essential duality is retained.
For Marx, capitalism is inventive and advanced with respect to the past (pre-capitalist societies), the present (capitalism itself), and the future (post-capitalist society). First, capitalism has “revolutionizing properties” that transform all social, economic, and political relations, thus creating conditions for consolidation and universal development.
Second, capitalism has “universalizing properties”. That is, commodity production promotes the internal (intensive) and external (extensive) development of capitalist relations of production through space and time, drawing all people into a web of economically-based social contacts and dependencies. Universalization thus implies a constant revolutionizing of the present as capital strives to overcome all obstacles to its general development.
Third, capitalism has “industrializing properties”. The logic of accumulation initiates and sustains a revolution that constantly develops the forces of production, thus radically enhancing the power of social labor. Although an outspoken critic of capitalism, Marx conceded that it was at one time a progressive and even radical force. Accordingly, capital needs innovation and change as well as new and more efficient machinery and technology in order to survive.
Fourth, capitalism is said to have “liberating properties” in that the revolutionizing, universalizing, and industrializing tendencies establish the objective and subjective conditions for the transition to socialism. Moreover, the development of the productive powers of the economy provides the material abundance without which socialism would necessarily remain a “struggle for necessities.” The tendency of the system to maximize surplus labor time relative to necessary labor time holds out the promise of the appropriation of that surplus time as leisure or free time for the producing classes, thus allowing for the universal extension of civilization, and the development of humanity as a rich individuality.
Most importantly for Marx, capitalist development generated the proletariat as a universal class, in the sense that in pursuit of its particular class interests (abolition of oppression and poverty) it promotes the general interest (abolition of private property, hence, of capitalism). In addition, capitalist industry socially organizes this class in production, the basis for the realization of class consciousness as praxis (i.e., the revolutionary transformation of capitalism).
Finally, in connection with its liberating potential, Marx held that capitalism demystified, rationalized, and secularized human culture and action, freeing the human mind from that “smallest compass” of superstition, idolatry, religion, and political illusion. Through its development of science and materialism, extended human comprehension of nature, the arts, and achievements in a world-historic sense, people will be free to develop many-sided lives.
In a country where thousands die every year from unsafe procedures, and rape is shockingly high, campaigners must overcome strict laws and religious beliefs, as well as misinformation and stigma
In a modest house on a red dirt road in Ota in Ogun state, Adijat Adejumo, a 39-year-old auxiliary nurse, runs a small chemist shop. She treats common illnesses such as malaria and colds and sells painkillers, antidiarrhoeal medications and vitamins. For the past few years, she has also been selling packs of mifepristone and misoprostol, medicines included in the WHO essential medicines list to induce abortion safely.
Both medicines are legal in Nigeria, a country with one of the world’s highest maternal mortality rates, but only if used to save women’s lives during obstetric complications. Adejumodoes not stock them in her shop; instead when a woman comes asking for help to end an unwanted pregnancy, she has them delivered. On average, she gets three such requests a month.
The prominent Nigerian atheist, who was freed on 8 January 2024 after serving more than four years in prison for blasphemy, is now living in a safe house as his legal team fear his life may be in danger…
In 2024, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (UNWGAD) released its opinion that the Nigerian State violated international law by detaining Bala. Concluding that he was wrongfully imprisoned for exercising his right to freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief and that because of this violation no trial should have taken place.
Humanists International welcomes news of the release of Mubarak Bala, however, it reiterates that he should never have been detained in the first place. The organization once again thanks all those individuals and organizations without whose support this work would not have been possible. The organization hopes that Bala will one day be able to return to his homeland, and resume his work.
Andrew Copson, President of Humanists International stated:
“Today, we celebrate Mubarak Bala’s release – a hard-won victory that fills us with immense joy and relief. This triumph would not have been possible without the unwavering dedication of Humanists International’s staff, the tireless advocacy of Leo Igwe, the expertise of James Ibor and Bala’s legal team, and the invaluable support of our partner organizations. We extend our deepest gratitude to each and every one of them. While we rejoice in Mubarak’s freedom, we remain committed to fighting for the countless others who remain unjustly imprisoned for their beliefs. Their struggle is our struggle, and we will not relent until they too are free.”
From an exuberant mountaineering woman to a boy representing unheard refugees, here are some of the brave individuals that gave us hope
Nine years ago, Cecilia Llusco was one of 11 Indigenous women who made it to the summit of the 6,088 metre-high Huayna Potosí in Bolivia. They called themselves the cholitas escaladoras (the climbing cholitas) and went on to scale many more peaks in Bolivia and across South America. Their name comes from chola, once a pejorative term for Indigenous Aymara women.
Abuja, October 16, 2024–The Committee to Protect Journalists strongly condemns the continued detention of journalists Olurotimi Olawale, Precious Eze Chukwunonso, Roland Olonishuwa, and Seun Odunlami, whose criminal charges were amended by prosecutors on October 14.
“Nigerian authorities should release journalists Olurotimi Olawale, Precious Eze Chukwunonso, Roland Olonishuwa, and Seun Odunlami, and end the deepening criminalization of the press,” said Angela Quintal, head of CPJ’s Africa Program, from New York. “Nigerian authorities’ additional charges against these four journalists emphasizes their commitment to sending a chilling message to journalists across the country.”
Olawale, an editor of the privately owned National Monitor newspaper; Chukwunonso, publisher of the privately owned News Platform website; Olonishuwa, a reporter with the privately owned Herald newspaper; and Odunlami, publisher of privately owned Newsjaunts website; were newly charged with making “false and misleading allegations” on social media with intent to “extort” and “threaten” the management of Guaranty Trust Bank, as well as causing “harm” to the bank’s reputation, according the October 14 charge sheet. The alleged crimes fall under sections 24(2)(c) and 27(1)(a) and (b) of Nigeria’s Cybercrimes Act and sections 408, 422, and 507 of Nigeria’s criminal code.
If found guilty under the criminal code, the journalists could face up to 14 years in prison for violating section 408, seven years for violating section 422, and three months for section 507. Under the Cybercrimes Act, the journalists could face five years in prison with a fine of 15 million naira (US$9,175) for violating section 24 and seven years in prison for violating section 27.
The journalists have been jailed since late September over reporting that implicated Segun Agbaje, chief executive officer of GTBank, in alleged fraud worth 1 trillion naira (US$600 million). The journalists were charged on September 26 with violating the Cybercrimes Act, which was reformed in February but still left journalists vulnerable to prosecution, as CPJ warned.
GTBank’s chief communications officer Oyinade Adegite responded to CPJ’s phone calls for comment with text messages saying she couldn’t talk at that time and did not respond to a follow-up message asking when she would be available to discuss the journalists’ detention. When contacted before the charges were amended, Adegite told CPJ that the journalists’ reporting was “defamatory” and that the bank had sought to have the journalists charged with cybercrime for it.
..A one-day conference was organized by African Centre for Media and Information Literacy (AFRICMIL), in collaboration with Amnesty International Nigeria, to explore the nexus between whistleblowing, corruption and human rights, and in doing so highlight the essence of whistleblowing as a conveyor belt of free speech and an affirmation of individual human dignity and moral worth that requires full protection from the state or other legitimate institutions.
Its theme, ‘Amplifying Whistleblowing to reduce Corruption and protect Human Rights,’ was painstakingly decided to assert the value of whistleblowers in exposing or preventing wrongdoing, and the necessity of standing up for them for largely playing the delicate role of human rights defenders who are in most cases victimized for performing what is clearly the citizenship duty of protecting the well-being of other citizens and the wider society.
Indeed, that whistleblowing is a fundamental human right is neither theoretical nor speculative. All applicable statutes from the domestic to the international are clear on this. And Maxwell Kadiri, senior legal officer at Open Society Justice Initiative (OSJI) and human rights advocate who was the keynote speaker, made the point succinctly in his refreshingly scholarly address by delving into the origin of whistleblowing and laying out all the laws proclaiming it as a human right that deserves protection.
However, worthy of note is that in exercising the right to hold opinion and express themselves by disclosing public interest illegalities or potential danger to competent authorities, whistleblowers are also helping – directly or indirectly – to protect the right being harmed by the wrongdoing they disclose. It isn’t for nothing, therefore, that some of the most prominent whistleblowing cases globally can be traced to whistleblowers who have reported wrongdoing that amounted to human rights abuse. Just one example of such is Dr. Li Wenliang, the 34-year-old Chinese ophthalmologist who was the first to blow the whistle on the covid-19 virus and other issues related to the right to life and access to healthcare. And there are many more unsung heroes like Wenliang whose disclosures have uncovered corruption and its collateral human rights violations. Whistleblowers have largely served as human rights defenders when they expose threats to human rights that the public are not able to access.
In Nigeria, they have continued to be victims of relentless persecution simply for doing the right thing: exposing wrongdoing which serves public interest. This is one of the major reasons for the whistleblowing, corruption and human rights conference. Institutions and individuals perpetrating wrongdoing often find it difficult to admit their mistake. Instead of tackling the message, they shoot down the messenger. Not a day passes without a report of public sector workers at the federal and sub-national levels being censored or penalized for challenging authorities by reporting fraud, corruption, misconduct and other illegalities. Although section 6 of Nigeria’s whistleblowing policy provides protection for whistleblowers on the receiving end of punishment for reporting wrongdoing, no whistleblower is known to have enjoyed any protection under this provision. This is because the oversight institutions are so weak that they are not able to assert themselves to implement this provision effectively. Rather than ensure honest implementation of the policy, these institutions are often found doing the bidding of the persons reported, not able to summon the courage to hold them to account for their wrongdoing and would perpetually ignore complaints of victimized whistleblowers.
At the conference, there were at least four whistleblowers with different stomach-churning tales of workplace oppression ranging from suspension, harassment, denial of salary and other benefits, punitive posting, abusive lawsuits, outright dismissal, and threat to life. At the risk of seeming immodest, it has to be stated that AFRICMIL is overwhelmed with demands for support from whistleblowers in this category. In the face of these varied attacks, it is no surprise that citizens are showing next to no interest in engaging whistleblowing despite its famed rating as an extension of the right of freedom of expression that is linked to the principles of accountability and integrity. To prevent an individual from exercising this right is much more than a denial of fundamental human right; it is a violation of humanity….
Whistleblowing is about promoting the culture of truth, self-expression and democracy. Dr. Chido Onumah, coordinator of AFRICMIL and his counterpart at the Amnesty International Nigeria, Isa Sanusi, have agreed as much and stated their resolve to work together to preserve the freedom of expression rights of citizens as it relates to whistleblowing.
Abuja, October 3, 2024—Despite recent reforms to Nigeria’s Cybercrimes Act, journalists continue to be targeted for publishing news in the public interest, with four reporters being charged under the law last month.
Cybercrime laws and other regulations governing online content have been widely used to jail journalists around the world. In Nigeria, at least 29 journalists have faced prosecution under the cybercrimes law since it was enacted in 2015.
CPJ had warned that February’s amendments to the law, which followed years of advocacy by human rights groups and CPJ, still left journalists at risk of prosecution due to an overly broad definition of what is a criminal offense. Since the law was reformed, it has been used to summon, intimidate, and detain journalists for their work.
On September 20, police in western Lagos State separately arrested Olurotimi Olawale, editor of the privately owned National Monitor newspaper, and Precious Eze Chukwunonso, publisher of the privately owned News Platform website, Nigerian Guild of Investigative Journalists’president, Abdulrahman Aliagan, told CPJ.
On September 25, police arrested Rowland Olonishuwa, a reporter with the privately owned Herald newspaper, in western Kwara state and Seun Odunlami, publisher of privately owned Newsjaunts website, in nearby Ogun state, Aliagan and Kwara-based journalist Dare Akogun told CPJ.
“Nigerian authorities should immediately release journalists, Olurotimi Olawale, Precious Eze Chukwunonso, Rowland Olonishuwa, and Seun Odunlami, and swiftly drop the cybercrime charges against them,” said Angela Quintal, head of CPJ’s Africa Program, from New York. “Since Nigeria’s Cybercrimes Act became law, it has been used to arrest and prosecute journalists, and these arrests emphasize that the recent reforms to the law have not reversed that trend.”
On September 27, the four journalists were charged in a Lagos federal court with violating sections 24(1)(b) and 27 of the Cybercrimes Act for reporting that implicated Segun Agbaje, chief executive officer of Guaranty Trust Bank, in alleged fraud worth 1 trillion naira (US$600 million) according to Aliagan, Akogun, and a copy of the charge sheet reviewed by CPJ.
Section 24 of Cybercrimes Act relates to pornographic or knowingly false messages “for the purpose of causing a breakdown of law and order, posing a threat to life, or causing such messages to be sent,” according to a copy of the law’s amendments signed by President Bola Tinubu in February. Violation of this section is punishable with up to three years in prison and a fine of 7 million naira (US$4,200).
Section 27 relates to attempts to violate the law and conspiracy, as well as aiding and abetting. Conniving to commit “fraud using computer system(s) or network” carries a variable punishment based on the violation and/or up to seven years in prison and a requirement to refund or forfeit stolen funds, according to the same copy of the amendments.
The journalists pleaded not guilty and were remanded at a Lagos correctional center, pending a bail hearing on October 4, Aliagan and Akogun told CPJ.
Although the police compelled the journalists to take down their articles, Nigeria’s federal House of Representatives subsequently announced an investigation into the bank over fraud allegations.
GTBank’s chief communications officer Oyinade Adegite confirmed to CPJ by phone that the bank had sought to have the journalists charged with cybercrime over their reporting, which she said was “defamatory.”
CPJ’s call and text messages to request comment from Lagos State police spokesperson Hauwa Idris-Adamu on September 27 went unanswered.
Editor’s note: This text has been updated in the ninth paragraph to add detail to the penalty for violating Section 27.
One summer evening, the unrelenting sun over Niger refused to dip below the horizon. I sought out some shade with three anxious men in Touba au paradis, a small quiet restaurant in Agadez. These three Nigerians had tried to make the crossing at Assamaka, to our north, into Algeria, but found the border barred. They hoped their final destination would be Europe across the Mediterranean Sea, but first they had to make it into Algeria, and then across the remarkable Sahara Desert. By the time I met them, none of these crossings were possible.
Algeria had closed the border, and the town of Assamaka had become overrun by desperate people who did not want to retreat but could not go forward. These men told me that they fled from Nigeria not because of any physical threat, but simply because they could not make a living in their hometown. High inflation and unemployment made the situation in Nigeria impossible. ‘How could we remain at home’, they said, ‘when we became a burden on our families even after we had finished school?’. Three educated Nigerian men, desperate to earn a living, unable to make one at home, decided against their own wishes to make a potentially fatal journey in search of a way to live with dignity.
I have had this same conversation with migrants on several continents. If the total global migrant population – which was estimated to be 281 million in 2020 – could be counted as one country, it would be the fourth largest country by population after China, India, and the United States. Each migrant has a unique story, of course, but some trends are similar. Today, most migrants do not fit the old treaty categories for refugees – asylum seekers escaping persecution on the basis of ‘race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion’. This definition comes from the 1951 Convention and Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees, which was drafted in the early Cold War era. Tensions were high at the time, as Western countries made up the majority of the UN. From January to August 1950, the USSR boycotted various bodies of the organisation because the UN would not give the People’s Republic of China a seat on the security council. As such, the convention was based on a Western conception of refugees as people who were fleeing ‘unfreedom’ (believed to be the USSR) for ‘freedom’ (assumed to be the West). There was no provision for the movement of people forced into dire economic straits due to the neocolonial structure of the world economy.
Nabila Horakhsh (Afghanistan), Windows, 2019.
Despite many attempts to redefine the term ‘refugee’, it remains in international law as a term related to persecution and not to starvation. The three men in Agadez, for instance, did not face persecution in line with the 1951 Convention, but they suffered greatly in a country wracked by a long-term economic crisis. This crisis emanated from the following elements: an initial chunk of debt inherited from British rulers; further debt from the Paris Club of creditor countries used to build infrastructure neglected during Nigeria’s colonial past (such as the Niger Dam Project); more debt compounded by internal borrowing to modernise the economy; the theft of royalties from Nigeria’s considerable oil sales. Nigeria has the tenth-largest oil reserves in the world, but a poverty rate of around 40%. Part of this scandalous situation is due to extreme social inequality: the richest man in Nigeria, Aliko Dangote, has enough wealth to spend $1 million a day for forty-two years. The three men in Agadez have just enough money to cross the Sahara, but not enough to cross the Mediterranean Sea. As I spoke to them, the thought loomed over me that they would likely fail at their first hurdle. What lay before them was the struggle to return home, where nothing remained, since they had liquidated all their assets for the failed trip.
Why do these men want to travel to Europe? Because Europe promotes an image of wealth and opportunity to the rest of the world. That is precisely what they kept telling me. The countries of the old colonisers beckon, their cities, partly built on stolen wealth, now attract migrants. And those old colonisers continue to pillage developing countries: the top five oil companies operating in Nigeria are Shell (UK), Chevron (US), TotalEnergies (France), ExxonMobil (US), and Eni (Italy). These old colonisers also continue to sell arms to their former colonies and bomb them when they want to exercise their sovereignty.
In 1996, the Indian writer Amitava Kumar published a poem called ‘Iraqi Restaurant’, which describes a reality that haunts this newsletter:
The Americans turned each home
in Baghdad into an oven
and waited
For the Iraqis
to turn up as cooks
in the US like the Vietnamese before them.
Pablo Kalaka (Venezuela), Pacha en barna, 2016. Pablo is part of the artists’ collective, Utopix, that is celebrating its fifth anniversary!
Lately, I have been thinking of the migrants who are also trying to scale the Melilla border fence between Morocco and Spain, or go through the Darién Gap in between Colombia and Panama, those who are trapped in prisons such as the Manus Island detention centre in Papua New Guinea, or the El Paso Del Norte Processing Centre. Most of them are ‘IMF refugees’, or ‘regime change refugees’, or climate refugees. These are terms unknown in the lexicon of the 1951 convention. A new convention would have to take their existence seriously.
Of the total of 281 million recorded migrants, 26.4 million are registered refugees and 4.1 million are registered asylum seekers. This means that many of the other 250.5 million migrants are either IMF, regime change, or climate change refugees. When the UN’s World Migration Report 2024notes that ‘the number of displaced individuals due to conflict, violence, disaster, and other reasons has surged to the highest levels in modern-day records’, it refers to these migrants and not strictly to those who are fleeing persecution.
Zwe Mon (Myanmar), A Mother, 2013.
I want to explore the circumstances that create these formally unrecognised refugees in greater detail:
1. IMF refugees
Almost every developing country was struck by the Third World Debt crisis, exemplified by Mexico’s bankruptcy in 1982. The only antidote available was to accept IMF conditionalities for their structural adjustment programmes. Developing countries had to cut subsidies for health and education and open their economies for export-oriented exploitation.
The net result was the degradation of livelihoods for the majority, which threw them into precarious occupations domestically and toward dangerous overseas migration. A 2018 report from the African Development Bank showed that, due to the attack on global agriculture, peasants in West Africa have moved from rural areas to cities into low-productive informal services. From there, they decide to leave for the lure of higher incomes in the West and in the Gulf. In 2020, for instance, the largest migrations were to three individual countries (the United States, Germany, and Saudi Arabia), where the treatment that migrants receive is often appalling. These are migration patterns of great desperation, not of hope.
2. Regime change refugees
Since the fall of the Soviet Union, the US has increased its military and economic force to overthrow governments that try to impose sovereignty over their territory. At present, a third of all countries, especially developing countries, face punitive US sanctions. Since these sanctions often cut off countries from using the international financial system, these policies create economic chaos and bring widespread distress. The 6.1 million Venezuelan migrants who left their country did so mainly due to the US’ illegally imposed sanctions regime, which has starved the country’s economy of vitality.
It is telling that those with the most vigorously enforced regime change policies, such as the US and European Union, are least charitable to those fleeing their wars. Germany, for instance, has begun to deport Afghans, while the US expels Venezuelans who set up encampments in Juárez, Mexico, out of desperation.
3. Climate change refugees
In 2015, at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP21) in Paris, government leaders agreed to set up a Task Force on Displacement. Three years later, in 2018, the UN Global Compact agreed that those on the move because of climate degradation must be protected. However, the concept of climate refugees is not yet established.
In 2021, a World Bank report calculated that by 2050 there will be at least 216 million climate refugees. As water levels increase, small islands will begin to disappear, making their populations survivors of a catastrophe that is not of their making. The countries with the largest carbon footprints bear responsibility for those who will lose their territories to the ravages of the rising seas.
Malak Mattar (Palestine), Electricity, 2016.
No migrant wants to leave their home and be treated as a second-class citizen by countries that forced their migration in the first place (as the Zetkin Forum for Social Research’s reportImport Deport: European Migrant Regimes in Times of Crisis shows). Women typically do not want to travel long distances, as the threat of gender-based violence poses a greater risk to them. They would prefer dignity wherever they choose to live. New development policies in poorer nations, an end to forced regime changes that bring war and destruction, and more robust action on the climate catastrophe: these are the best approaches to tackle the enlarged refugee crisis.
A decade ago, the Palestinian poet Dr Fady Joudah wrote ‘Mimesis’, a reflection on just this line of thought:
My daughter
wouldn’t hurt a spider
That had nested
Between her bicycle handles
For two weeks
She waited
Until it left of its own accord
If you tear down the web I said
It will simply know
This isn’t a place to call home
And you’d get to go biking
She said that’s how others
Become refugees isn’t it?
“He hit me with a gun butt,” Premium Times newspaper reporter Yakubu Mohammed told the Committee to Protect Journalists, recalling how he was struck by a police officer while reporting on cost-of-living protests in Nigeria’s capital of Abuja on August 1. Two other officers beat him, seized his phone, and threw him in a police van despite his wearing a ”Press” vest and showing them his press identification card.
Yakubu Mohammed shows a head wound which he said was caused by police officers who hit him with gun butts and batons. (Photo: Courtesy of Yakubu Mohammed)
Mohammed is one of at least 56 journalists who were assaulted or harassed by security forces or unidentified citizens while covering the #EndBadGovernance demonstrations in Nigeria, one of several countries across sub-Saharan Africa that have experienced anti-government protests in recent months.
In Kenya, at least a dozen journalists have been targeted by security personnel during weeks of youth-led protests since June, with at least one reporter shot with rubber bullets and several others hit with teargas canisters. Meanwhile, Ugandan police and soldiers used force to quash similar demonstrations over corruption and high living costs, while a Ghanaian court banned planned protests.
Globally, attacks on the press often spike during moments of political tension. In Senegal, at least 25 journalists were attacked, detained, or tear gassed while reporting on February’s protests over delayed elections. Last year, CPJ found that more than 40 Nigerian journalists were detained, attacked, or harassed while reporting on presidential and state elections. In 2020, at least a dozen journalists were attacked during the #EndSARS campaign to abolish Nigeria’s brutal Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) police unit.
CPJ’s documentation of the incidents below, based on interviews with those affected, local media reports, and verified videos and photos, are emblematic of the dangers faced by reporters in many African countries during protests – and the failure of authorities to prioritize journalists’ safety and ending impunity for crimes against journalists.
All but one of the journalists – a reporter for government-owned Radio Nigeria – worked for privately owned media outlets.
July 31
News Central TV journalists were stopped and questioned by police officers while live reporting. (Screenshot: News Central TV/YouTube)
In western Lagos State, police officers harassedBernard Akede, a reporter with News Central TV, and his colleagues, digital reporter Eric Thomas and camera operators Karina Adobaba-Harry and Samuel Chukwu, forcing them to pause reporting on the planned protests at the Lekki toll gate.
August 1
In Abuja, police officers arrestedJide Oyekunle, a photojournalist with the Daily Independent newspaper, and Kayode Jaiyeola, a photojournalist with Punch newspaper, as they covered protests.
In northern Borno State, at least 10 armed police officers forcefully entered the office of the regional broadcaster Radio Ndarason Internationale (RNI) and detained nine members of staff for five hours. Those held said that police accused them of publishing “fake news” in the arrest documentation and RNI’s project director David Smith told CPJ that the raid was in response to the outlet’s reporting via WhatsApp on the protests.
The detained staff were: head of office Lami Manjimwa Zakka; editor-in-chief Mamman Mahmood; producer Ummi Fatima Baba Kyari; reporters Hadiza Dawud, Zainab Alhaji Ali, and Amina Falmata Mohammed; head of programs Bunu Tijjani; deputy head of programs Ali Musa; and information and communications technology head Abubakar Gajibo.
In Abuja, police officers threw tear gas canisters at Mary Adeboye, a camera operator with News Central TV; Samuel Akpan, a senior reporter with TheCable news site; and Adefemola Akintade, a reporter with the Peoples Gazette news site. The canisters struck Adeboye and Akpan’s legs, causing swelling.
In northern Kano city, unidentified attackers wielding machetes and sticks smashed the windows of a Channels Television-branded bus carrying 11 journalists and a car carrying two journalists.
The windows of a Channels Television bus were smashed by unidentified assailants as it was transporting 11 journalists to cover protests in the Nigerian city of Kano on August 1. (Photo: Ibrahim Ayyuba Isah)
The journalists were: reporters Ibrahim Ayyuba Isah of TVC News broadcaster, whose hand was cut by glass; Ayo Adenaiye of Arise News broadcaster, whose laptop was damaged; Murtala Adewale of The Guardian newspaper, Bashir Bello of Vanguard newspaper, Abdulmumin Murtala of Leadership newspaper, Sadiq Iliyasu Dambatta of Channels Television, and Caleb Jacob and Victor Christopher of Cool FM, Wazobia FM, and Arewa Radio broadcasters; camera operators John Umar of Channels Television, Ibrahim Babarami of Arise News, Iliyasu Yusuf of AIT broadcaster, Usman Adam of TVC News; and multimedia journalist Salim Umar Ibrahim of Daily Trust newspaper.
In southern Delta State, at least 10 unidentified assailants opposed to the protest attacked four journalists: reporters Monday Osayande of The Guardian newspaper, Matthew Ochei of Punch newspaper, Lucy Ezeliora of The Pointer newspaper, and investigative journalist Prince Amour Udemude, whose phone was snatched. Osayande told CPJ by phone that they did not make a formal complaint to police about the attack because several police officers saw it happen, but added that the state commissioner for information, Efeanyi Micheal Osuoza, had promised to investigate. Osuoza told CPJ by phone that he was investigating the matter and would ensure the replacement of Udemude’s phone.
Police oversee protesters in Lagos on August 2, 2024. (Photo: AP/Sunday Alamba)
August 3
In Abuja’s national stadium, masked security forces fired bullets and tear gas in the direction of 18 journalists covering the protests, several of whom were wearing “Press” vests.
The journalists were: Premium Times reporters Abdulkareem Mojeed, Emmanuel Agbo, Abdulqudus Ogundapo, and Popoola Ademola; TheCable videographer Mbasirike Joshua and reporters Dyepkazah Shibayan,Bolanle Olabimtan, and Claire Mom; AIT reporter Oscar Ihimhekpen and camera operators Femi Kuku and Olugbenga Ogunlade; News Central TV camera operator Eno-Obong Koffi and reporter Emmanuel Bagudu; the nonprofit International Centre for Investigative Reporting’s video journalist Johnson Fatumbi and reporters Mustapha Usman and Nurudeen Akewushola; and Peoples Gazette reporters Akintade and Ebube Ibeh.
Kuku dislocated his leg and Ademola cut his knees and broke his phone while fleeing.
In Abuja’s Wuse neighborhood, unidentified men robbed Victorson Agbenson, political editor of the government-owned Radio Nigeria broadcaster, and his driver Chris Ikwu at knifepoint as they covered a protest.
August 6
In Lagos State, unidentified armed men hit four journalists from News Central TV and their vehicle with sticks. The journalists were News Central TV’s Akede, camera operator Adobaba-Harry, reporter Consin-Mosheshe Ogheneruru, and camera operator Albert David.
Abuja police spokesperson Josephine Adeh told CPJ by phone on August 16 that police did not carry out any attacks on the media and asked for evidence of such attacks before ending the call. She also accused CPJ of harassing her.
Police spokespersons Bright Edafe of Delta State and Haruna Abdullahi of Kano State told CPJ that their officers had not received any complaints about attacks on the press.
Lagos State police spokesperson Benjamin Hundeyin referred CPJ to the state’s police Complaint Response Unit, where the person who answered CPJ’s initial phone call declined to identify themselves and said they had no information about attacks on journalists. CPJ’s subsequent calls and messages went unanswered.
CPJ’s repeated calls and messages to Borno State Commissioner for Information Usman Tar requesting comment were unanswered.
On June 11, police officers in Kaduna, the capital city of Nigeria’s northern Kaduna State, arrested Gabriel Idibia, a correspondent and freelancer with the privately owned Daily Times and Daybreak Nigeria news sites, while he was taking photos of the officers guiding a large group of cattle across a road, according mediareports, Idibia and Daybreak Nigeria publisher Austin Maho, who both spoke to CPJ.
Idibia said he was driving to work around 8:30 a.m. when he noticed an unusual number of cows causing a traffic jam on a highway in Sabo, a town within Kaduna. The road was divided in two lanes, and the cows were being escorted in one lane by armed police officers driving in two official vans.
With plans to report on the movement of the cows, Idibia said he approached two officers separately to inquire about what was happening, but they did not respond to his inquiries. When Idibia took the photograph, one of the officers seized his phone, and another officer collected Idibia’s media ID card, he told CPJ.
Idibia said the officers ordered him to enter their van, and they drove him to the police station where one of the officers chastised him for asking questions about their police work and punched Idibia in his left eye, causing the journalist to fall on the floor.
Idibia said the officers compelled him to write a statement saying that he disrupted their work, instructed the journalist to unlock his phone and delete the photo he had taken of the cows before returning his device and ID card and releasing him around 6 p.m. that day.
Immediately after his release, Idibia went to the office of the state police spokesperson, Mansur Hassan, and reported how he had been treated, according to Idibia and Maho. Hassan told Idibia that his claims would be investigated.
Idibia told CPJ that he received medical care at a local hospital, was using medication to treat his eye, and could not see clearly.
CPJ contacted Hassan by phone, and he requested questions via text message but did not reply to those questions after they were sent.
On July 1, 2024 AI published the findings of a survey which says that three out of five child and young human rights defenders face online harassment in connection with their activism, according to a new analysis of 400 responses to an Amnesty International questionnaire, distributed to young activists across 59 countries. More than 1400 young activists participated in the survey conducted as a part of Amnesty International’s global campaign to “Protect the Protest.”
Of those, 400 youth activists aged between 13 to 24 years agreed to the publication of their data.
They faced harassment in the form of hateful comments, threats, hacking and doxing which is often linked to offline abuse and political persecution often perpetrated by state actors with little or no response from Big Tech platforms resulting in the silencing of young people.
The highest rates of online harassment were reported by young activists in Nigeria and Argentina.
“I have been harassed […] by a stranger because of my pronouns. The stranger told me it is not possible to be a ‘they/them’ and kept sending messages about how I am crazy for identifying the way I identify. I had to ignore the person’s messages,” said a 17-year-old Nigerian queer LGBTI activist who asked not to be identified.
Another young activist – 21-year-old male Nigerian LBGTI rights activist said, “People disagree with my liberal progressive views, and immediately check my profile to see that I am queer Nigerian living in Nigeria, and they come at me with so much vitriol. I am usually scared to share my opinion on apps like TikTok because I can go viral. The internet can be a very scary place,” he said adding that, “Someone cat fishing as a gay man, lured me into coming out to see him after befriending me for a while, and then he attacked me with his friends. This is Nigeria, I couldn’t go to the police for secondary victimization.”
Twenty-one percent of respondents say they are trolled or threatened on a weekly basis and close to a third of the young activists say that they have censored themselves in response to tech-facilitated violence, with a further 14 percent saying they have stopped posting about human rights and their activism altogether.
“I always think twice before making a comment, when I express my political position, I start to get many comments that not only have to do with my position, but also with my body, my gender identity or my sexuality,” said Sofía*, a 23-year-old human rights defender from Argentina shared her experience on X formerly known as Twitter.
The survey respondents said they faced the most abuse on Facebook, with 87 percent of the platform’s users reporting experiences of harassment, compared to 52 percent on X and 51 percent on Instagram.
The most common forms of online harassment are upsetting and disrespectful “troll” comments (60 percent) and upsetting or threatening direct messages (52 percent).
Five percent of the young activists say they have faced online sexual harassment, too, reporting that users posted intimate images (including real and AI-generated images) of them without consent.
For many of the survey participants harassment in relation to their online activism is not limited to the digital world either. Almost a third of respondents reported facing offline forms of harassment, from family members and people in their personal lives to negative repercussions in school, police questioning and political persecution.
Twenty-year-old non-binary activist Aree* from Thailand shared their experience of facing politically motivated prosecution in five different cases whilst they were still a child.
Abdul* a 23-year-old Afghan activist reported being denied work at a hospital after authorities found out about his social media activism.
The Israel-Gaza war currently stands out as an issue attracting high levels of abusive online behaviour, but the threat of online harassment appears to be omnipresent across all leading human rights issues. Peace and security, the rule of law, economic and gender equality, social and racial justice, and environmental protection all served as “trigger topics” for the attacks.
However, the way young activists are targeted varies and appears to be closely linked to intersectional experiences of discrimination, likely harming survivors of identity-based abuse in longer lasting ways than issue-based harassment.
Twenty-one percent of respondents say they have been harassed in connection with their gender and twenty percent in connection with their race or ethnicity. Smaller percentages said they face abuse in connection with their socio-economic background, age, sexual orientation and/or disabilities.
“At first it was simply hateful comments since the posts I published were daring and spoke openly about LGBT rights, which later made me receive threats in private messages and it went further when my account was hacked,” said Paul a 24-year-old activist from Cameroon, on being targeted for his LGBTI related activism adding that, “For 2 years, I have been living in total insecurity because of the work I do as an advocate for the rights of my community online.”
For Paul and many other young activists, online harassment is having deep effects on their mental health. Forty percent of the respondents say they have felt a sense of powerlessness and nervousness or are afraid of using social media. Some respondents have even felt unable to perform everyday tasks and felt physically unsafe. Accordingly, psychological support is the most popular form of support which young activists call for, ahead of easier to use reporting mechanisms and legal support.
Many of the young activists voiced frustrations over leading social media platforms’ failure to adequately respond to their reports of harassment saying the abusive comments are left on the platforms long after being flagged.
Some respondents also felt that social media platforms are playing an active part in silencing them; multiple activists reported that they found posts about the war in Gaza removed, echoing previous reports of content advocating for Palestinian rights being subject to potentially discriminatory moderation by various platforms.
Others highlighted platforms’ role in enabling state-led intimidation and censorship campaigns, undermining activists’ hope for government regulation to provide answers to the challenge of tech-facilitated violence.
Abuja, May 31, 2024—Nigerian police authorities should immediately drop their criminal investigation into journalist Nurudeen Akewushola and the International Centre for Investigative Reporting (ICIR), and allow them to work free of harassment and fear of arrest, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Friday.
On May 20, officers with the Nigeria Police Force-National Cybercrime Center (NPF-NCCC) summoned Akewushola, a reporter with the nonprofit ICIR news agency, and an ICIR’s managing director, who was not named, for questioning in connection with a police investigation “into a case of cyberstalking and defamation of character,” according to Akewushola, ICIR editor Victoria Bamas, and an ICR report.
On May 28, Akewushola and ICIR Executive Director Dayo Aiyetan went to the Nigeria police station in the Nigerian capital Abuja where officers held and questioned them for over nine hours and then released them on condition that they both must return for further questioning on June 11, according to the journalists and their lawyer, Saidu Muhammad Lawal, who spoke by phone with CPJ. Akewushola added that he needed to provide surety before he was released. Aiyetan and Lawal also said the officers threatened to charge Akewushola.
Akewushola and Aiyetan told CPJ that police questioned them about a February 2024 report authored by Akewushola and published by ICIR that alleged two former Nigeria inspector generals of police, Solomon Ehigiator Arase and Ibrahim Kpotum Idris, were involved in illegal land sales. During police questioning, Aiyetan, Akewushola, and Lawal said that officers showed them a criminal complaint filed by Corpran International Limited, one of the land developers mentioned in the ICIR report. Akewushola also said the complainant accused him of seeking a bribe when he called for comments before publishing the report, an allegation the journalist described as a blatant falsehood.
Additionally, days after the publication, Arase wrote a letter to ICIR, which CPJ reviewed, describing the report as false and demanding a retraction of the story and compensation of one billion naira ($714,647 USD). He also filed a civil suit against ICIR alleging defamation of character.
“Nigerian police should immediately end the criminal investigation of journalist Nurudeen Akewushola over his reporting, drop any plans to charge him or his colleagues, and cease harassing the International Centre for Investigative Reporting,” said Angela Quintal, head of CPJ Africa program, from Durban, South Africa. “It seems that despite reforms to Nigeria’s Cybercrimes Act, police continue to use it as a tool to summon and harass the press, even without bringing charges.”
On May 15, ICIR received a similar police summons, a copy of which CPJ reviewed, for Akewushola and the outlet’s “managing directors.” That summons was dated April 16, 2024, and cited a case of “cyberstalking and defamation of character,” without further details.
Reached by phone on Wednesday, Corpran International Limited owner Andy Chime confirmed that he had filed a complaint with police alleging “cyberstalking and defamation of character” about ICIR’s February report. Chime also called this reporter “stupid” for requesting clarity on the allegation of cyberstalking mentioned in his complaint, before ending the call.
When CPJ contacted Arase on May 17, after the first invitation, he said he had filed a civil case against the ICIR and declined to comment about a possible police complaint filing.
On the same day, when CPJ contacted the director of the NPF-NCCC, Henry Ifeanyi, he declined to discuss details of the case that caused the summons and said he was not aware of any laws preventing the police from inviting Nigerians for questioning. Reached by phone on May 28 while Akewushola and Aiyetan were at the station, Ifeanyi said “I don’t have any journalists detained” and declined to comment further, referring CPJ to the police’s public relations office.
When contacted on May 28, police force public relations officer Muyiwa Adejebi said he will contact the Cybercrime Center for details of the police invitation and investigation. On Wednesday, Adejobi told CPJ that he could not give the details of any possible charge against Akewushola but added that if the investigators decided to charge him, it would relate to Akewushola’s work as a journalist.
In February, Nigerian President Bola Tinubu signed into law amendments to the country’s Cybercrimes Act, increasing the burden of proof to bring charges under section 24, which relates to cyberstalking, according to a CPJ research.
AI asked three older activists to reflect on their experiences, the changes they are campaigning for, and how being an older person gives them unique perspective and motivation.
Cecile de Ryckel, 78, Belgium
Cecile is a lifelong activist working on anti-racism and climate change.
Why did you become an activist?
After a homelessness crisis amongst migrants in Belgium in 2015, my husband and I hosted two people from Ethiopia who the authorities had left to sleep in a city park. They told us that in Ethiopia they were small-scale farmers and grew food for their families. However, it was raining less frequently, and growing food was becoming more difficult. That was when I realized that climate change was one of the most important issues in the world today, and that it would have far-reaching consequences. Soon after that I participated in a citizens assembly discussing how best to address climate change and reduce carbon emissions. We learned how to mobilize people and change behaviours. I joined an advocacy collective, Grandparents for the Climate, and started working actively on the issue.
We have a responsibility to future generations to address this challenge today. It already has wide-ranging impacts on people of all ages. I remember when I was a child that we would joke that an older person was someone who “wouldn’t make it through the winter”, but today due to rising temperatures we sadly have to ask whether some older people can “make it through the summer”.
I recently saw how a group of older women won a landmark court case that the Swiss government’s weak climate change policy had violated their rights. This will help advance the cause greatly, for people of all ages.
Amina Musa, 72, Nigeria
Amina is an activist on behalf of victims of the armed conflict in north-east Nigeria and their families, including those who have been unlawfully killed or detained.
Why did you become an activist?
I became an activist nine years ago when Boko Haram forced us to leave our homes, and we found ourselves living in camps controlled by the Nigerian government. The military made baseless accusations that our sons were associated with Boko Haram. Our sons were blindfolded and arrested and held in dehumanizing conditions. I had no choice but to start campaigning for their release. As mothers, we came together and started a movement to seek justice. We are demanding that all those detained unlawfully be released immediately and that the government investigate the gross violations we have experienced. Some of our sons have been in detention for more than 10 years. We have had enough, we want justice.
I tell other older people that they should continue with their activism and bear with the challenges, and that our activism can also inspire younger people. I know it is not easy, but these causes are important. Age should not and will not deter us from making our society free from injustice.
Juan Jacobo Hernández, 82, Mexico
Juan is an activist on social issues and LGBTQ+ liberation.
Why did you become an activist?
In the 1960s, I was part of Mexican student movements. Then Stonewall happened: I had a boyfriend at the time who lived in New York, and he told me that I had to come and see it for myself. I witnessed the first LGBTQ+ rebellion: the first time gay men, trans people, lesbians were standing up and confronting the police. Coming back to Mexico, we started the Frente de Liberación Homosexual (Gay Liberation Front). I had learned a lot about how to make protests visible and how to make our voices heard. Finally, there was a space where we could be active, where we could do something. When I started my activism, we didn’t use the term “human rights” – but that’s what it has always been about. We held large demonstrations against political repression, for the abolition of the death penalty, and to fight restrictions on social protest. Persecution by the government was very real and close to us at the time – gay men and trans women were persecuted, raided by the police, extorted and beaten up.
Whenever we were out in the street, we felt that something bad could happen. We were struggling for our lives, for our security, for our right to be in the street without being beaten up, robbed or killed.
My whole life, I have never stopped being an activist. The AIDS epidemic collapsed the first phase of gay liberation. So many activists died and [as I grew older], I recognised the need to transmit my experience, knowledge and values [to the younger generation]. Since 1981 I’ve been part of Collective Sol, where we work to build and strengthen the capacity of small, grassroots organizations that are working on the most pressing LGBTQ+ issues they see today.
My life as an activist means I can look back and say I have witnessed three great moments in LGBTQ+ liberation. The first was when we formed political organizations, coming out of the shadows and breaking the silence. The second was the HIV/AIDS epidemic, the way it created a connection between LGBTQ+ liberation and people living with HIV, irrespective of whether they were LGBTQ+. This connection was powerful and drove the movement forward.
By Kola Alapinni As an International Human Rights Lawyer deeply committed to defending fundamental freedoms and combating injustice, my work often leads me to confront egregious violations of human rights. One such battle unfolded in Northern Nigeria, where the oppressive grip of blasphemy laws threatened the lives and liberties of individuals like Yahaya Aminu-Sharif and […]
More than 13,000 Nigerian villagers can bring legal claims against oil firm, rules high court
Thousands of Nigerian villagers can bring human rights claims against the fossil fuel company Shell over the chronic oil pollution of their water sources and destruction of their way of life, the high court in London has ruled.
Mrs Justice May ruled this week that more than 13,000 farmers and fishers from the Ogale and Bille communities in the Niger delta were entitled to bring legal claims against Shell for alleged breaches to their right to a clean environment.
On 10 August 2023 Matthew Ogune of the Nigerian Guardian reported that Nigerian lawyer and human rights activist, Oluwafunke Adeoye, has emerged as one of the winners of the 2023 Waislitz Global Citizen Awards, with a prize money of $75,000. Adeoye is the founder of Hope Behind Bars Africa.
Adeoye was officially announced as a winner in the 2023 edition by the global body. The honour makes her the first individual working in the Criminal Justice sector to win this global award.
The Waislitz Global Citizen Awards are annual cash prizes totaling $250,000 that recognize the excellence of individuals in their work to end extreme poverty. The grand prize is $100,000 with two additional prizes at $75,000 each, for a total of three prizes. The awards are presented by the Waislitz Foundation and Global Citizen, and supported by the US and Australian based cellular medicines company, Mesoblast Ltd. and Unico Capital Holdings.
“Ending extreme poverty is not a choice, it’s an obligation. My hope is that it will inspire many thousands of people around the world to do what they can to improve the living standards of those in dire need,” Chairman and Founder of the Melbourne-based Waislitz Foundation, Alex Waislitz.
The Waislitz foundation exists to create a positive social impact locally and globally through innovative projects that empower individuals to meet their full potential and make a measurable difference to the world.
According to the global body, the Nigerian born lawyer has over the years helped in providing free legal services and direct support to indigent incarcerated people, while promoting criminal justice reform through research, advocacy and technology.
Reacting to the award in a statement on Wednesday in Abuja, Adeoye said she was inspired to begin the initiative in 2018, after some personal encounters with the justice system, including one where her father was arrested and detained for a crime he did not commit several years ago.
The organisation closes the justice gap by providing free legal services and direct support to low-income incarcerated individuals while promoting criminal justice reforms through research, evidence-based advocacy, and technology. Over 7,000 incarcerated individuals have benefitted from their interventions.
With the award, Adeoye plans to fully launch Justicepadi, a tech platform that will revolutionise legal aid in West Africa and also expand her work for climate justice.
“It is crucial for people to understand that behind the labels of ‘convicts’ or ‘prisoners’, there are human beings with stories, hopes, and dreams. By offering legal aid, we strive to ensure that every person, regardless of their circumstances, has access to fair representation and a chance to rebuild their lives,” Adeoye said.
The other winners of the award are: Peter Njeri and Esther Kimani, both Kenya citizens. They were named 2023 Waislitz Global Citizen Award winner and the Waislitz Global Citizen Disruptor Award winner respectively.
By positioning itself as an expert partner in international climate efforts, GE gains access to developing economies, propping up a system that pushes countries deeper into debt and increases their reliance on unsustainable fuels.
UK government not required to state whether Nnamdi Kanu, a British national, was victim of extraordinary rendition, judge rules
The brother of a British national being held in Nigeria after falling victim to extraordinary rendition has said he is disappointed after the high court dismissed his challenge to UK ministers’ handling of the case.
Kingsley Kanu, brother of Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (Ipob), a prominent separatist movement proscribed in Nigeria, claimed that three foreign secretaries – Liz Truss, Dominic Raab and then James Cleverly – had acted unlawfully by failing to reach a view on whether he had been subjected to extraordinary rendition.
‘If we work together to make sure that issues are more visible, that happen in Africa, the civil society organisations, I think, will be achieving more.’
Odinakaonye ‘Odi’ Lagi is the programme director for the Network of University Legal Aid Institutions (NULAI), Nigeria, and she works on promoting access to justice and legal aid for Nigerians. Citing the example of the Nigerian social movement to protest against the actions of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (known as the end #EndSars protests), which she says did not receive enough attention in the continent, she calls for civil society groups and activists across Africa to come together to shed more collective light on individual national struggles.
A recent BBC documentary is about the challenges faced by humanists and atheists in Nigeria. The film was released this week and focuses on Mubarak Bala, reporting on the events that took place in the run-up to his unjust and disproportionate sentencing in April 2022.Mubarak, who is the President of the Humanist Association of Nigeria, is currently serving a 24-year prison sentence, in connection with a series of Facebook posts that some deemed to be ‘blasphemous’ and ‘likely to cause a public disturbance’. See also: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2021/08/27/mubarak-bala-wins-humanist-international-2021-freedom-of-thought-award/
Leo Igwe, Humanists International Board Member & Founding member of the Humanist Association of Nigeria, has been spearheading the campaign for his release since he was first arrested in April 2020.: “The launch of the documentary marks more than 30 months since Mubarak was separated from his family. I’m so proud of his wife, Amina, for the strength she has shown, but you can see in her interview how hard this has been for her. Perhaps the most chilling part of the documentary is when the lawyer who brought about the complaint against Mubarak simply cannot hide his pleasure at the outcome of the sentence, despite the devastating impact on the family. He says: “I really feel bad for the wife and the little son” but the smile on his face tells a very different story.”
Sea levels are rising – and the United States has a lot to learn from countries that are already adapting. Reporter Shola Lawal of the podcast Threshold explores how two communities in Nigeria are dealing with it.
Lagos, the booming coastal city of Nigeria, is growing even as rising water levels threaten its future. Lawal visits the informal community of Makoko, where people have learned to live with water: Many homes are built on stilts. In a community where many people make a living fishing, small houses rise above the water, vendors sell vegetables and goods from floating markets, and locals ferry people to destinations in canoes. A lack of dry land has forced residents to innovate in creative ways. But the government has threatened to destroy Makoko, declaring the neighborhood an eyesore.
Next, Lawal visits Eko Atlantic City, an “ultra-modern” luxury city that a development company is building on sand dredged up from the ocean floor. In contrast to the scrappy adaptations Makoko residents have made to live on water, the million-dollar apartments of Eko Atlantic are protected by an enormous seawall.
Each year, global leaders gather to discuss the climate crisis at COP, the United Nations climate conference. Threshold Executive Producer Amy Martin talks with Reveal host Al Letson about this year’s COP27. While nearly every country on the planet attends these annual conferences, a much smaller number – about 20 economies – are responsible for 80% of global greenhouse gas emissions. That’s left more vulnerable countries asking – what are the richest countries going to do to pay for the damage they’ve caused?
Zwe Mon (Myanmar), A Mother, 2013.
