From Mali to Guinea to Senegal, demonstrations are all too often brutally, and even lethally, put down. And yet Amnesty International emphasizes that violence by the forces of law and order is not an illustration of a state’s power but rather its weakness.
Page after page of our most recent annual human rights reports are filled with cases of young men and women killed or seriously injured during demonstrations due to the use of live ammunition or tear gas, or due to police vehicles being deliberately driven into them. Page after page reveal a global phenomenon, one that is particularly concerning in West African countries: the illegal use of force by law enforcement officials during demonstrations.
The authorities in the region must put an end to this violence, which is mutilating young people and tarnishing the credibility of these regimes in the eyes of their populations and the rest of the world.
In Senegal, at least 65 people were killed between March 2021 and March 2024 during anti-government protests in the run-up to the presidential election. In Guinea, at least 113 young people have been killed since 2019 during protests against the regime of Alpha Condé and the transitional government established after the coup d’état in 2021. In Sierra Leone, on 10 August 2022, protests against the high cost of living resulted in the deaths of 27 demonstrators and passers-by, as well as six police officers. In Mali, between May and July 2020, 18 people were killed while protesting at the country’s poor governance.
Many other young people who have demonstrated against price inflation, power cuts, insufficient protection of civilians in conflicts, corruption, or who have called for free and transparent elections, have been killed or seriously injured in recent years in Nigeria, Benin, Togo and Côte d’Ivoire.
Repression of dissenting voices
Violence against demonstrators on the part of the forces of law and order (police, gendarmes or army) cannot be reduced to isolated criminal acts. Such actions are above all a reflection of the general context of a shrinking civic space and intense repression of dissident voices in the region. Attacks on freedoms have multiplied in recent years with the aim of stifling any challenge to the authorities. In Mali and Burkina Faso, the activities of political parties have been suspended. In Guinea, a communiqué issued by the authorities in 2022 banned all demonstrations. In many countries, protests organized by opposition political parties and civil society organizations are regularly banned on spurious grounds. Activists are arbitrarily detained simply for exercising their right to freedom of expression or peaceful assembly. Journalists and the media are gagged and Internet access is restricted.
This highly repressive climate, in which the authorities demonstrate the lengths they are willing to go to, including illegality, to silence dissenting voices, is conducive to violence by the forces of law and order. At the end of the day, it appears to be just one more component of this multifaceted repression. It is even validated by the near total impunity enjoyed by the perpetrators, even when they are accused of unlawful killings.
The use of force is governed by principles of legality, necessity, proportionality, precaution and non-discrimination.
In Guinea, the authorities have frequently announced investigations into killings during demonstrations but few have culminated in trials. In Senegal, an amnesty law passed in March 2024 extinguished all legal action for victims or families of victims of violence committed by the forces of law and order since 2021. In Sierra Leone, the Special Commission of Inquiry into the events of August 2022 recommended improving police training to avoid “excesses of authoritarianism” but did not call for an investigation into the excessive use of force. Such shielding from prosecution gives the forces of law and order a blank cheque to repeat these human rights violations.
Police violence and state weakness
Far from denouncing the violence committed by the forces of law and order, the authorities often offer justifications that are not compliant with international standards for the protection of human rights. They point to the fact that the demonstration was illegal or violent but rules governing the use of force and firearms remain the same regardless. The police are required, in particular, to use all non-violent methods possible before resorting to force, and to use force then only if it becomes absolutely necessary. In all cases, the use of force is governed by principles of legality, necessity, proportionality, precaution and non-discrimination. Furthermore, law enforcement officials may not use firearms against people except in self-defence or to defend third parties from imminent threat of death or serious injury.
The violence perpetrated by the security forces has left many families grieving. It has also left young people bearing the scars of the authoritarian tendencies of certain governments. Too many young people, including minors, who merely wanted to express their desperation or their hope for a better life, still carry the bullets fired by police or soldiers lodged in their bodies, have been paralysed or have had to undergo an amputation. As shown by Amnesty International’s latest report on Guinea, “Wounded Youth: Care and justice urgently needed for the victims of unlawful use of force”, seriously injured people, generally from disadvantaged social backgrounds, do not have the means to pay for proper treatment, leaving them with lifelong scars from the criminal excesses of those who are supposed to be enforcing the law. They suffer, drop out of school, lose their jobs and swallow their dreams, all to the indifference of the authorities. Some die a few years later for lack of treatment.
Violence by the forces of law and order is not an illustration of the strength of a state but rather its weakness. It is characteristic of a failing public force, fuelling citizens’ distrust of the authorities, fanning insecurity and testifying to the inability of these regimes to listen to the voices of dissent. In contrast, the strength of a state lies in its ability to train law enforcement officials in the principles of maintaining order, to combat impunity for the illegal use of force and to guarantee an environment conducive to the exercise of human rights. The authorities in the region must put an end to this violence, which is mutilating young people and tarnishing the credibility of these regimes in the eyes of their populations and the rest of the world.
This article was originally published by Jeune Afrique.