Mrs. Massandjé TOURE-LITSE, ECOWAS Commissioner for Economic Affairs and Agriculture, led a delegation to the Conference of African Ministers in charge of Environment in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, from 30 August to 6 September 2024.

The Conference is organised annually under the aegis of the African Union and in partnership with the United Nations Environment Programme to review environmental concerns in Africa and agree on relevant resolutions to be brought to the attention of the United Nations Environment Assembly.

The meeting is being held against the backdrop of the Conferences of the Parties to the three (3) Rio Conventions on the Environment, namely Climate Change, Biodiversity and Combating Desertification, and the 4th session of negotiations to establish a binding instrument to combat plastic pollution, which are scheduled to take place between now and the end of 2024.

The aim of the Conference of Ministers is to prepare the Conferences of the Parties by defining common positions to be defended during the forthcoming negotiations. Like the other regional economic communities, ECOWAS is taking part in the discussions in order to better present regional concerns and take on board the results of the work, so as to be in a position to participate effectively in the forthcoming Conferences of the Parties to the Rio Conventions.

On the sidelines of the Conference of African Ministers, the Commissioner held working sessions with partners, including representatives of the United Nations Environment Programme, the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa and the African Union Commission.

Together with the Regional Director of the UNEP Africa Office, the Commissioner discussed the renewal of the MOU between the two institutions, as well as collaboration in the implementation of certain priority programmes, including the integrated management of the Fouta Djallon Massif and the regional carbon market.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

One year since Storm Daniel ravaged Libya’s eastern coast, claiming over 5,900 lives and displacing more than 44,000 people, humanitarian needs remain alarmingly high. Five leading international aid agencies, including Acted, International Medical Corps (IMC), the International Rescue Committee (IRC), the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), and Premiere Urgence Internationale (PUI), stress the urgent need for continued emergency interventions and long-term recovery strategies to support the affected communities.

In a newly released brief, these organizations outline the ongoing challenges faced by flood-affected communities. Despite initial emergency responses, the devastation caused by the floods has left critical gaps in essential services. The brief reveals that while work to rebuild the affected areas is ongoing, social, economic and educational needs persist. Numerous families continue to face challenges in obtaining essential necessities, with many displaced people living in precarious conditions.

Jared Rowell, IRC’s Country Director in Libya, says, “The impact of Storm Daniel continues to reverberate through the communities in Libya. Our efforts to provide medical care and rebuild essential health services have been critical, but, needs remain for strengthened healthcare and comprehensive mental health services to ensure a resilient recovery.” 

Key Findings: 

1. WASH (Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene): Water station and desalination plant rehabilitation, water tank installation, clean water trucking, and borehole maintenance have provided essential water access to thousands, but significant work remains to ensure all communities have reliable access. Healthcare facilities face critical water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) challenges, including poor water quality, inadequate sanitation, and hygiene supply shortages, putting both patients and workers at risk. Communities also struggle with inconsistent access to clean water and insufficient sanitation, affecting public health and increasing household costs. Urgent action is needed to restore WASH infrastructure, provide safe drinking water, and raise hygiene awareness. 

Thomas Whitworth, NRC’s Country Director in Libya, says, “Ensuring that families have access to safe water is not just about survival; it is about restoring dignity and enabling communities to rebuild. We call on the international community to continue supporting these essential recovery efforts.”

2. Health care and Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS): Over 85,000 medical consultations have been conducted by the iNGOs, and 12 health facilities renovated, but health risks and shortages of essential medicines persist, particularly for women and children. A severe lack of qualified healthcare staff continues to impact primary and secondary centers, with urgent needs for medical care, supplies, and personnel, especially in reproductive health.   In areas like Derna, residents must travel over 60 kilometers for essential services, posing challenges, particularly for those with disabilities. Additionally, new graduates lack proper training programs, deterring them from working in healthcare facilities. Mental health consultations and MHPSS activities continue to be critical to support communities rebuild their lives.

Talal Burnaz, IMC’s Country Director in Libya, says,“International Medical Corps and other iNGOs swiftly responded to the flooding crisis by providing essential healthcare services and supporting various health facilities. However, the need is still there, and it is crucial to maintain this level of support during the recovery phase while simultaneously strengthening the healthcare system to ensure continued service for the affected population.”

3. Shelter and Livelihood: Thousands of non-food item kits and cash assistance have been distributed, but many displaced families still lack adequate shelter. Psychosocial support, especially for children, need scaling up as health workers continue to see cases of trauma, grief, and anxiety. The loss of male guardians has left many women and children as heads of households, while the loss of homes and land disrupts income stability and access to basic needs like hygiene items and food.

Audrey Brenot, Acted’s Country Director, says, “From rehabilitating schools to providing cash assistance, we are committed to helping families regain stability and rebuild their lives. However, more support is needed to meet the ongoing needs.”

The brief highlights the need for a more unified approach that includes international agencies, local authorities, and civil society organizations to streamline efforts and avoid duplication. Establishing clear communication protocols and efficient approval processes is crucial to enhancing the effectiveness of the humanitarian response.

Camille Saulnier, PUI’s Head of Mission in Libya, says, “The involvement of local communities is essential to the success of our humanitarian response. By training community health volunteers and ensuring access to clean water, we are empowering Libyans to take charge of their recovery. But we must not lose sight of the fact that this is a marathon, not a sprint.”

As Libya moves into the second year after the disaster, the coalition of aid agencies emphasizes that the recovery process is not just about rebuilding infrastructure; it is fundamentally about rebuilding lives. They stress the importance of increased international support to bridge the gap between emergency relief and sustainable development. This includes investing in critical infrastructure rehabilitation, enhancing local capacity through targeted training and resource allocation, and ensuring that communities are resilient against future disasters. 

The coalition calls on the international community to remain engaged and committed to supporting Libya’s ongoing journey towards recovery and stability, recognizing that the road ahead requires sustained and coordinated efforts.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of International Rescue Committee (IRC) .

One out of every four children under the age of five is malnourished in the Shinkafi and Zurmi areas of Nigeria’s Zamfara state, according to a mass screening conducted in June by Doctors Without Borders (MSF) and the Ministry of Health. Of the 97,149 children screened in 21 different urban and rural locations, 27 per cent were found to be suffering from acute malnutrition, with five per cent having severe acute malnutrition.

These concerning figures far exceed the ‘critical level’ threshold established by the World Health Organization (WHO) regarding malnutrition prevalence. MSF urges health authorities, international organisations, and donors to immediately intensify their efforts to tackle the escalating malnutrition crisis in Zamfara state and the whole of Northwest Nigeria—a region not yet included in the United Nations Humanitarian Response Plan.

The mass screening held in June in the Shinkafi and Zurmi areas further revealed that about 22 per cent of the children screened are moderately malnourished. The nutritional supplies essential to treat such children, also known as ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF), are unavailable, as UNICEF halted its supplies at the start of the year. This current lack of humanitarian response to treat those who are moderately malnourished in Northwest Nigeria risks the lives of these children who, without immediate care, will progress to severe acute malnutrition that threatens their survival and compromises their long-term health.

“The screening results from Shinkafi and Zurmi are nothing short of alarming, revealing a catastrophic malnutrition crisis across Northwest Nigeria,” declares Abdullahi Mohammad, an MSF representative in Nigeria. “The response to this overwhelming disaster is grossly insufficient. With malnutrition rates soaring beyond critical levels and no immediate treatment available for moderate acute malnutrition apart from at MSF facilities, we’re effectively letting more children fall into life-threatening conditions. It is crucial we ensure every child receives the medical care they desperately need.”

MSF currently runs four inpatient and 17 outpatient facilities in Shinkafi, Zurmi, Gummi and Talata Mafara in Zamfara – a state badly affected by malnutrition. Across all four inpatient facilities, MSF teams have treated over 7,000 children from January to July 2024. These figures for admissions are 34 per cent higher than for the same period in 2023. In Shinkafi and Zurmi, where MSF conducted the recent malnutrition screening, the increase in admissions is 50 per cent more than the same period last year. At the medical facility in Gummi, admissions in July 2024 almost doubled compared to the same month the previous year.

Alongside the significant increase in malnutrition admissions, MSF teams are seeing high numbers of children with vaccine-preventable diseases such as measles. In Zamfara, they have treated at least 5,700 measles cases so far this year. Infectious diseases like measles, malaria, and acute watery diarrhoea, severely compromise the nutritional status of children. In turn, malnutrition makes them far more susceptible to these illnesses, with a higher risk of death. 

Hafsat Lawal, a mother whose child is being treated for malnutrition:
“When I first brought my son into the hospital, I didn’t know if he would survive. Back at home, due to insecurity, we are unable to afford food as prices have more than doubled. If we had money, we would have bought some grain but we cannot.”

Communities are facing high levels of violence in Zamfara and have told MSF teams that they are scared to move around the state, taking considerable risks to reach functioning healthcare facilities. The health authorities estimate that as of 2023, only about 200 out of 700 healthcare centres in Zamfara are accessible, and the rest are non-functional—one reason is that healthcare workers struggle to reach them.

Despite the ongoing humanitarian crisis and facing high levels of insecurity, communities in the Northwest have long been excluded from coordinated humanitarian response. It is essential that health authorities in this area, alongside international organisations and donors, urgently scale up their response. Immediate expansion of health facilities is needed to treat malnourished children to ensure that more hospitals can offer the type of inpatient care desperately needed to save lives. Moreover, as the primary supplier of RUTF, UNICEF must ensure the consistent and sufficient delivery of these essential therapeutic foods to prevent more children from falling victim to this crisis.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Médecins sans frontières (MSF).

Entrenched impunity for deaths in custody and other serious human rights abuses by armed groups operating under the command of the self-proclaimed Libyan Arab Armed Forces (LAAF) has enabled the Internal Security Agency (ISA) to intensify its crackdown on critics and political opponents in recent months, including politicians, activists, poets and bloggers, Amnesty International said today.

Since January 2024, heavily armed ISA agents have arrested without a warrant dozens of people, including women and men in their 70s, from their homes, streets or other public places in areas of eastern and southern Libya under LAAF control. Those arrested were then transferred to ISA-controlled facilities, where they remained arbitrarily detained for months without being allowed to contact their families or lawyers; some were subjected to enforced disappearances for periods reaching 10 months. None were brought before civilian judicial authorities, allowed to challenge the legality of their detention, or were formally charged with any offences. Two people died in custody in suspicious circumstances in April and July while in ISA-controlled detention centres in Benghazi and Ajdabiya. No independent and impartial criminal investigations have been carried out into their deaths and no one has been held accountable.

“The spike in arbitrary detentions and deaths in custody in recent months highlights how the existing culture of impunity has empowered armed groups to violate detainees’ right to life without fearing any consequences. These deaths in custody add to the catalogue of horrors committed by the ISA against those who dare to express views critical of LAAF,” said Bassam Al Kantar, Amnesty International’s Libya Researcher.

“The Tripoli-based Government of National Unity as well as LAAF, as the de facto authorities in eastern and southern Libya, must ensure the immediate release of all those arbitrarily detained solely for exercising their right to freedom of expression. The LAAF must also suspend from positions of power ISA commanders and members reasonably suspected of crimes under international law and serious human rights violations, pending independent and impartial criminal investigations, including into the causes and circumstances of the deaths in custody, and, where sufficient evidence exists, prosecute them in fair proceedings in front of civilian courts.”

Amnesty International interviewed one former detainee, the families of seven detainees, including the two men who died in custody, as well as lawyers, human rights defenders and political activists.

Our son was brought back to us as a corpse

On 13 July 2024, Ahmed Abdel Moneim Al-Zawi, 44, died while detained at an ISA detention centre in Ajdabiya in northeastern Libya. He was arbitrarily arrested on 10 July while visiting the detention centre to see his brother Abdrabo Abdel Moneim Al-Zawi, who had been detained due to his criticism of the ISA. According to informed sources, the ISA claimed that Ahmed Abdel Moneim al-Zawi hung himself, but witnesses reported seeing a bruise on the back of his head which appeared to be due to a strong blow.

Sheikh Al-Sanussi Al-Haliq Al-Zawi, Vice President of the Supreme Council of Notables and Tribes of Libya and the head of the victim’s tribe, appeared in a video  on 16 July lamenting: “Our son (Ahmed) entered on his two feet and was brought back to us as a corpse.” Less than 24 hours later, he appeared in another video praising the ISA and noting that a committee had been established to investigate Ahmed Abdel Moneim Al-Zawi’s death. Amnesty International suspects that Sheikh Al-Sanussi Al-Haliq Al-Zawi was pressured to publicly exonerate the ISA in line with a previously documented pattern of the ISA threatening survivors and victims’ families if they dare speak out against them.

According to informed sources, a prosecutor in Benghazi closed the case without any investigations, and the forensic report omitted any mention of injuries to the head. 

Siraj Dughman, a Libyan political analyst, also died while in ISA custody on 19 April 2024. The LAAF never responded to calls by members of the international community and Libyan civil society to launch an investigation into the circumstances of his death. The ISA claimed on 20 April that Siraj Dughman fell during an escape attempt. They did not allow the family to see his body and no autopsy report was shared. Amnesty International learned that his death certificate indicated that the cause of death was “a fall from an elevated place”.

Arbitrary arrests over bogus charges

On 1 October 2023, the ISA arrested Siraj Dughman along with Fathi al-Baaja, the General Secretary of the Libya for All Party and a former member of the 2011 National Transitional Council, as well as another political activist, accusing them of planning to overthrow the LAAF. These arrests took place after the Libyan Centre for Strategic and Future Studies headed by Siraj Dughman had an internal meeting to discuss the deadly collapse of the Derna dam.

Later that month, the ISA arrested two other political activists who theyclaimed belonged to the same group as Siraj Dughman and were planning to overthrow the LAAF. The four survivors were released on 25 August, after over 10 months of arbitrary detention without charge or trial.

Arbitrary detained activist and blogger Maryam Mansour Al-Warfalli , known as “Nakhla Fezzan,” was arrested on 13 January 2024 by the ISA in Sabha, after she criticized the LAAF’s supervision of the distribution of cooking gas in southern Libya. Maryam Mansour Al-Warfalli has been a vocal critic of mismanagement in southern Libya for years.

According to a family member, since her detention at the ISA headquarters in Benghazi, Maryam Mansour Al-Warfalli has been denied any family visits. She was seen by a psychiatrist, who requested that she be admitted to Benghazi Hospital on 2 May, but she only stayed there for a few days before being returned to prison.

ISA agents also arbitrarily arrested Sheikh Ali Msbah Abusbeha, 77, head of the Supreme Council of Tribes and Cities of Fezzan and a political figure critical of LAAF, on 19 April in Sabha and denied him access to his family or lawyers. He told Amnesty International that he is still receiving medical care following his release on 20 June and that he fled his home three days after his release due to threats by LAAF. 

Armed groups allied to LAAF have also subjected 78-year-old Sufi Sheikh Muftah Al-Amin Al-Biju to enforced disappearance since 4 February after some 20 armed men arrested him from his home in Benghazi. According to a family member, he was solely targeted for exercising his right to freedom of religion and belief, amid the ISA’s targeting of Sufis not espousing the Madkhali Salafi ideology to which ISA adheres. The family member heard from unofficial sources that his health in Qarnada prison, where ISA controls a wing, has been deteriorating as he has diabetes and a frail immunity system being a cancer survivor. His relatives have been unable to visit him or obtain confirmation from any LAAF affiliated armed groups about his place of detention. 

Background

The ISA armed group operates under the de facto authority of the LAAF and is led by Ousama Al-Dressi. Members of the ISA, have committed harrowing human rights abuses to silence critics and opponents.  The budget  of LYD 179 billion (USD 36.8 billion) approved by Libya’s parliament in July 2024 for the eastern-based “Libyan Government,” allied to the LAAF, earmarks funds for armed groups with histories of abuse, including the ISA. The LAAF controls and carries out government-like functions in Benghazi, the second-largest city in Libya, and large swathes of eastern and southern Libya. Where de facto authorities, such as the LAAF, are in control of territory and exercising government-like functions, they are also bound by international human rights law.

A separate entity, also named ISA, operates in western Libya and is led by Lotfi al-Harari, nominally under the authority of the Tripoli-based Government of National Unity (GNU).

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Amnesty International.