This Article discusses significant legal developments in African Law from 2023.
In October, with tensions rising following Israel’s support of Morocco’s claim of sovereignty over the Western Sahara, the U.N. Security Council extended the Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) by another year. The U.N. supports holding a referendum on self-determination, particularly after the International Court of Justice and other courts have ruled that Morocco’s efforts to annex the territory are illegal.
In September, the World Bank approved $230 million in financing from the International Development Association to help Benin strengthen private sector-led growth, boost revenue collection, and build social and climate resilience. Benin ranks 152 out of 181 countries on the extreme climate vulnerability index; flooding is exacting a heavy toll on the population and coastal erosion is among the area’s highest.
Burkina Faso saw the steepest drop in Freedom House’s 2023 report, losing twenty-three points on its 100-point scale and falling from “partly free” to “not free” after two coups. In January 2022, Lieutenant Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, leading the Patriotic Movement for Safeguard and Restoration, ousted the elected president, suspended the constitution, dissolved the legislature, and instituted a curfew. Eight months later, he was replaced by another officer, Captain Ibrahim Traoré, who dismissed the transitional government, again suspended the constitution, closed the borders, and froze civil society organizations.
Prepared under agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Law 16/X/2022 approved the 2023 State Budget which includes the following: research and development tax incentives for companies; reinvestment of profits; renewable energy production; and exemptions for excise duties on 4x4 vehicle imports. The country has been urged to reduce expenditures with the IMF and World Bank looking to create a new tax authority to aid in revenue collection, which is predicted to see the demise of the National Directorate of State Revenue.
In May, the IMF approved a $3.5 billion loan agreement with Côte d’Ivoire to tackle financial challenges, including the shocks of the pandemic, global monetary tightening, and the war in Ukraine. Nearly $500 million was made immediately available with further funds dependent on structural economic changes.
In March, Gambia passed the Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters Act, which enables the country to cooperate with foreign law enforcement agencies in investigating and prosecuting cross-border crime, which is important in pursuing accountability for human rights violations committed under former president Yahya Jammeh.
In August, a court found three women guilty of practicing female genital mutilation (FGM), the first convictions since FGM was banned in the country in 2015. FGM convictions carry up to three years imprisonment, a fine of 50,000 dalasi ($735), or both; up to life imprisonment where FGM leads to death.
In August, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo assented to the Criminal Offences (Amendment) Bill 2022 and the Armed Forces (Amendment) Bill 2022, both of which abolish the death penalty for most crimes in Ghana. Although Ghana has not carried out an execution since 1993, its laws have provided for capital punishment for murder, genocide, treason, and smuggling, and its constitution still provides for it for high treason. Ghana had ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) in 2000 but had yet to sign its Second Optional Protocol aimed at abolishing the death penalty.
In November, gunmen stormed Conakry’s main prison and freed former dictator Moussa “Dadis” Camara, resulting in the justice minister announcing closure of the country’s borders. Camara, who came to power in a 2008 coup, had been held in connection with a stadium massacre during his time in power. Opposition parties initially welcomed a September 2021 coup that removed long-serving President Alpha Condé, who sparked anger for changing the constitution to run for a third term, but frustrations with the military government have been rising over the slow return to constitutional rule.
In June 2023, a coalition of opposition groups won a majority in parliament in the first legislative elections since President Umaro Sissoco Embalo dissolved the assembly. Under the current system, the majority party or coalition appoints the government, but the president retains powers to dismiss it. More than twenty political parties and coalitions vied for seats in the elections, the five-party Terra Ranka—a coalition led by the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde—winning fifty-four of 102 seats, ahead of Embalo’s Madem G15 party, which gained twenty-nine.
Despite record turnout in the October presidential election, neither incumbent President Joseph Weah, running for reelection, nor opposition candidate Joseph Boakai received enough votes to win outright, leading to a run-off. The eventual winner faces challenges to help Liberia recover from two civil wars and its 2013–2016 Ebola epidemic.
Former President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz and nine other defendants went on trial in January; Aziz faces charges of unlawfully amassing more than $72 million from his years in power. Aziz was succeeded by Mohamed Ould Ghazouani in 2019 in the country’s first transfer of power between elected leaders but was soon accused of financial misdealing. In October 2023, a prosecutor sought a twenty-year sentence in the trial, which awaits judgment.
In June 2023, Malians approved constitutional changes in a referendum to pave the way to elections and a return to civilian rule, with opponents countering that the changes will give too much power to the president, currently Colonel Assimi Goita. With the changes, the president will “determine the policies of the nation,” a role intended for the government under the 1992 constitution; the head of state will hire and fire the prime minister and cabinet members; and the government will answer to him, not to parliament. Mali has been under military rule since August 2020, when army officers forced out the country’s elected president, Ibrahim Boubacar Keita.
In July 2023, Niger’s Presidential Guard overthrew President Mohamed Bazoum, dissolving the country’s constitution and suspending state institutions. Responding to the coup, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) closed Niger’s borders, suspended trade and financial transactions, and threatened military intervention.
In October 2023, the Supreme Court of Nigeria upheld the election of All Progressives Congress candidate Bola Tinubu to the presidency, ruling against the opposition’s challenges of fraud and electoral law violations from his two main contenders, the People’s Democratic Republic’s Atiku Abubakar and the Labour Party’s Peter Obi.
In June 2023, the Nigeria Data Protection Act 2023 was signed into law. The Act provides a legal framework for the regulation of personal data in Nigeria in line with data principles within international data protection frameworks. The predecessor National Data Protection Regulation 2019 and its Implementation Framework will continue to apply to the extent that it is not inconsistent with the Act.
Expanding domestic tax collection, the country’s new VAT regime came into effect in June, replacing prior taxes, including a general consumption tax, and introducing a new Stamp Duty Code. In August 2023, the World Bank announced a $15 million Development Policy Operation, the third of three to support macroeconomic stability and growth post-Covid, aimed at strengthening domestic revenue mobilization, financial and power sector stability, and social protection systems.
In June 2023, at least sixteen people died and hundreds were arrested after protests broke out following the sentencing of opposition leader Ousmane Sonko who was cleared of a rape charge but found guilty of “immoral behavior” toward young people under the age of twenty-one. Senegal’s interior ministry dissolved Sonko’s political party after his arrest for plotting insurrection. Supporters say the charges are part of a government effort to derail his candidacy in the 2024 presidential election, although incumbent President Macky Sall has said he will not seek a controversial third mandate.
Hailed as “ground-breaking,” in January 2023, Sierra Leone passed the Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Act (GEWE) that reserves thirty percent of jobs for women, ringfences senior positions, and provides at least fourteen weeks of maternity leave. In addition, in October 2023, Sierra Leone fell six places in the World Justice Project’s 2023 report to 110 out of 142 countries.
Originally extended for six months in September 2022, in March Togo’s National Assembly extended a state of emergency for another year in its northern Savanes border region hit by jihadist attacks. Togolese troops are deployed in the north to contain a jihadist threat from Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso, where militants linked to al-Qaeda and the Islamic State operate.
In July 2023, Amnesty International called on authorities to end the violence that has seen the deaths of more than 6,000 people in Anglophone Cameroon. Discrepancies between the French and English academic, legal, and administrative systems, along with political and economic marginalization, turned into riots in 2016; the suppression of these riots has led to conflict that continues in Anglophone regions.
In August 2023, CAR’s Constitutional Court approved referendum results showing ninety-five percent of voters backing constitutional changes that enable President Faustin Archange Touadera to seek a third term. The changes scrap the two-term limit and extend the presidential mandate from five to seven years. Touadera was elected president in 2016 after French military intervention, and the deployment of UN peacekeepers ended civil war. In September 2022, the Court dealt a blow to the proposed constitutional change, scrapping a committee tasked with drafting the new charter. Its then-president, Daniele Darlan, forcibly retired in January.
In October, anti-balaka militia leader Maxim Mokom was released by the International Criminal Court (ICC) after it withdrew charges, citing a lack of evidence and witnesses. Mokom, who became a government minister in 2019 after a peace deal ceded top posts to rebels, is the third anti-balaka leader sent to The Hague over the 2013–2014 violence. Mokom was convicted in absentia in September with twenty-three others, including former President François Bozizé, by the country’s appeals court on charges including undermining the internal state security and rebellion and was sentenced to life in prison.
Southern Chad remains “deeply affected by the impact of the [CAR] crisis, intra- and inter-communal conflicts, kidnappings for ransom, flooding, food insecurity, and health emergencies.” In August 2023, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) estimated that 38,700 people were displaced. In October 2022, police and soldiers opened fire on demonstrators protesting the two-year extension of General Mahamat Idriss Déby Into, who was proclaimed head of state by the army in April 2021 following the death of his father who had ruled the country for thirty years.
In October, the IOM estimated a record high of 6.9 million displaced persons in the DRC, the latest increase following renewed conflict between Tutsi-led M23 rebels and militias loyal to the government in the North Kivu province. Plagued by violence from armed groups for nearly thirty years, the DRC has one of the largest internal displacement and humanitarian crises in the world. The DRC government has called on the UN peacekeeping mission, MONUSCO, to leave by December, saying it has failed to put an end to the violence.
Reviewing its $1.5 billion loan program, the IMF said DRC’s economy is expanding more than six percent despite both a slump in the prices of the metal used in electric vehicles and continued conflict.
In May, the Congo inaugurated the Oyo Centre of Excellence for Renewable Energies and Energy Efficiency to work towards energy transition in the country. In addition, it has ratified eleven International Labor Organization conventions, including ones related to social security, minimum wage, migrant workers, occupational health, and others.
In November 2023, President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo welcomed Russian mining companies during talks in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin, highlighting mutual interests and investment opportunities. In power since 1979, Nguema Mbasogo currently heads the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS).
In August 2023, Gabon’s military ousted President Ali Bongo Ondimba minutes after election results were announced, resulting in the country’s transitional president, Brigade General Brice Oligui Nguema, ushering in a transition charter supplanting the 1991 Constitution. Gabon has been partially suspended from the Commonwealth following the coup under calls for credible elections within two years. In November 2023, US President Joe Biden announced that he would expel Gabon, Niger, Uganda, and CAR from the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) trade program, in Gabon’s case as it had not made “continual progress toward establishing the protection of political pluralism and the rule of law.”
In April 2023, Burundi arrested former Prime Minister Alain Guillaume Bunyoni seven months after he was sacked, President Evariste Ndayishimiye making accusations of a coup plot against him. Former president Nkurunziza’s “chaotic and bloody rule” saw Burundi isolated and Bunyoni under US sanctions since 2015 over his alleged role in a crackdown sparked by Nkurunziza’s run for a third term. Having previously overseen public security, Amnesty International hailed Bunyoni’s arrest as an opportunity for Burundi to ensure accountability for human rights violations.
In March 2023, Djibouti announced a crackdown on irregular migration, with state-run television reporting that about 3,000 people had been rounded up by police to be deported. Interior Minister Said Nouh Hassan said the Horn of Africa nation had become “saturated” by an influx of people from neighboring countries, with 220,000 arriving “illegally” in 2022 alone.
In March 2023, UN Deputy Human Rights Chief Nada Al-Nashif told the Human Rights Council that the human rights situation in Eritrea remained “dire” due to the fact State security forces act with impunity and violations of basic freedoms in Eritrea “show[ing] no sign of improvement.” The UN Special Rapporteur was extended by another year as indefinite military service, military conscription round-ups, evictions, arbitrary detentions, and disappearances continued.
In April, the African Development Bank (AfDB) approved a $49.92 million grant to construct a solar photovoltaic power plant in the country which is expected to improve access to energy in Eritrea.
In September 2023, a UN report said that war crimes and crimes against humanity were still being committed in Ethiopia a year after the government and regional forces from Tigray agreed to end the fighting. The two-year conflict ended in November 2022. Both sides accused each other of massacres, rape, and arbitrary detentions. In a statement accompanying the report, the International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia Chair said that signing the agreement had silenced the guns but had not resolved the conflict. The report said the Ethiopian National Defense Force, Eritrean Defense Forces, and regional forces had carried out a “widespread and systematic attack” against civilian populations.
In August, a high court in Nairobi ordered cryptocurrency project Worldcoin and its partners to stop processing new biometric data in Kenya, pending adjudication of a petition from the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner. The injunction is in response to a grievance that Worldcoin had gathered personal information in contravention of Kenya’s data protection laws, including unlawfully obtaining consent from data subjects.
Rwanda is an “authoritarian, one-party state” that “imprisons, tortures and murders” opponents, including those who have fled the country, argued counsel in October before the UK Supreme Court in a challenge to the country’s policy to send UK asylum-seekers to Rwanda. In November 2023, the Supreme Court quashed the UK government’s program after its Court of Appeal overturned a High Court ruling that the plan was lawful.
In October 2023, the IMF completed a first review under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) and the Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF), finding the Seychelles to be meeting performance targets in the EFF-supported program strengthening macro-economic balances. As a “small island state vulnerable to external shocks and climate change,” the IMF said the Seychelles needed to stay the course in reducing public debt and increasing foreign exchange buffers while increasing the efficiency of public investment and support for vulnerable segments of the population.
In October 2023, the UN Special Representative of the Secretary General and Head of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNSOM) highlighted Somalia’s progress on state-building and security through the military offensive against Al-Shabab, which remains a threat, as the country prepares for the drawdown of international forces. The May 27 National Consultative Council communiqué sets out proposals for a future electoral system although the presidential system and proposed synchronization of federal member states’ election schedules remain contentious.
In October 2023, the UN Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan reported the country’s National Security Service was threatening media and civil society and undermining prospects for a democratic transition. The report details attacks on journalists and civil society, both within and outside the country, with journalists subjected to surveillance, intimidation, and human rights violations including arbitrary detention ahead of the elections scheduled for December 2024.
Following a 2014 investigation mission, a delegation from the African Committee of Experts on the Rights of Welfare of the Child (ACERWC) repeated its call for South Sudan to ratify the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child and to implement its recommendations following an April advocacy mission to the country.
“Half a year of war has plunged Sudan into one of the worst humanitarian nightmares in recent history,” said UN Undersecretary-General Martin Griffiths in a statement after fighting broke out in April between Sudanese armed forces and paramilitary group the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). The UN estimates that 9,000 people were killed and another 5.6 million were forced to flee their homes. In the Darfur region, the fighting has taken on its own ethnic dimension, pitting Arab against non-Arab communities, recalling the violence that made it synonymous with conflict for twenty years.
In August, members of the Maasai community gathered to address the government’s use of media to achieve its goal of persuading them to leave the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. Thirty-nine people were arrested following the meeting and are being held in unknown places. Amnesty International called on Tanzanian authorities to end the arrests and detentions “which constitute renewed repression against the Maasai Indigenous Community that is standing up for their rights to their ancestral lands.” Threats to evict the Maasai from their ancestral lands have lasted over a decade.
Passed in March, Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Act (2023) “foresees the application of the death penalty and long prison sentences for consensual acts between adults,” said the UN Secretary-General, calling on Uganda to respect its international human rights obligations, notably the principle of non-discrimination and the respect for personal privacy. The statement condemned the law as risking worsened violence and persecution already faced by lesbian, gay, and bisexual people in Uganda; the law’s legality was challenged by two applications filed with the East African Court of Justice.
In June, Amnesty International called on Angola to exercise restraint during nationwide protests against high fuel costs and restrictive laws aimed at limiting the work of NGOs in the country, after authorities confirmed that five people were killed and eight injured and thirty-four others arrested during a June protest.
General elections took place in August 2022, resulting in the People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola winning with fifty-one percent of the vote against allegations of electoral irregularities.
In January, Presidential Decree 73/23 approved a National Strategy and General Guidelines for the Plan to Prevent and Combat Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing, and the Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction. The Plan, to be implemented 2023-2027, aims at safeguarding the stability and integrity of the Angolan financial system.
In its October Public Expenditure Review (PER), the World Bank said Comoros “must improve public financial management, enhance domestic resource mobilization, improve the efficiency of public health spending, and take steps to incorporate climate change and disaster risk management.”
Improved public financial management could generate fiscal space up to 1.8 percent of GDP which could be used to finance expenditures such as improved healthcare.
In September 2023, the High Court of Botswana dismissed an application to review the Water Utility Company (WUC)’s refusal to release a report on waterflow into the Gaborone Dam, the applicant arguing that the right to freedom of expression under the Botswana Constitution includes the right to access information. The Court held for the WUC, finding that the report was intended for its operations and not for public consumption, Botswana not having a freedom of information act. The Southern Africa Litigation Centre criticized the decision, writing that the WUC, as a publicly-owned institution, should be transparent in disclosing information, referencing the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights Guidelines on the Right to Water in Africa (2019) that require States to “ensure that individuals and communities, especially vulnerable and marginalized groups, are given full and equal access . . . to information on their right to water . . . .”
In October 2023, Lesotho’s main opposition party, the Democratic Congress, initiated a vote of no confidence against Prime Minister Sam Matekane, based in a 2020 constitutional amendment that curtailed executive powers, weakening Matekane’s ability to withstand the parliamentary challenge. Proceedings were scheduled for October 30, causing a parliamentary stand-still and delaying critical matters including the budget.
In June, the World Bank approved a $100 million credit for a Development Policy Operation (DPO) aimed at reforms to drive inclusive and resilient growth including improving transparency and macro-fiscal stability, market competition, and corporate governance in the energy, telecommunications, and mining sectors. The credit is the first of three DPOs.
In November 2023, Malawi repealed provisions of its penal code providing for sedition. The move comes after a 2010 Malawi High Court ruling that the sedition laws were invalid under the constitution with NGOs saying that successive governments have used sedition charges to restrict freedoms of expression and opinion and to silence critical voices.
In May 2023, Malawi detained over 400 refugees and asylum-seekers, including children, about two months after issuing an ultimatum for people to return to an overcrowded camp north of the city. The Malawi Ministry of Homeland Security responded that the operation was “trying to flush out illegal immigrants” such that those with valid documentation should not be concerned. Malawi is home to almost 70,000 refugees and asylum seekers, according to UNHCR, most living in a refugee camp set up to accommodate about 12,000 but hosting more than 56,000 refugees.
In October 2023, the Supreme Court of Mauritius ruled a law criminalizing sodomy “unconstitutional,” finding the country’s criminal code discriminated against gay men. The court ruled on claims brought by “Collectif-Arc-en-Ciel” (CAEC) on behalf of Abdool Ridwan Firaas Ah Seek, who argued that the provision violated his right to freedom from degrading treatment as the law allowed law enforcement to enter and search his home merely on suspicion of an offence.
Encouraging investment, in May 2023, the Parliament of Mozambique passed a new Private Investment Law incorporating tax benefits, accessible land, simplified procedures for licenses and permits, and protection against expropriation, eliminating visa requirements for twenty-nine countries. The law also introduced provisions to promote responsible investment, emphasizing the social responsibility of investors.
In May 2023, setting aside a 2022 High Court decision, Namibia’s Supreme Court ruled that immigration laws must recognize same-sex marriages validly concluded outside Namibia, finding for two couples denied rights due them from their marital status. The High Court had dismissed the applications, noting that the Constitution of Namibia prohibited discrimination based on sexual orientation but the High Court was bound by the 2001 Supreme Court judgment Immigration Selection Board v Frank which denied rights of same-sex partners under the Immigration Act. Namibia continues to criminalize same-sex sexual relations, although prosecutions are rare.
Designed to address the discriminatory impact of apartheid in labor and employment through affirmative action, in April 2023, President Cyril Ramaphosa amended the Employment Equity Act of 1998 (EEA) to permit numerical targets for national economic sectors to support equitable representation. The Department of Employment and Labour said the amendments were necessary to address employment inequality, with white South Africans comprising eight percent of the population but occupying 62.9 percent of top management and black South Africans comprising eighty percent of the population but only 16.9 percent of top management.
In August 2023, an Eswatini Legal Aid Office was established, the first to offer legal aid services to those facing the justice system, particularly the poor and marginalized. Legal information about awareness, advice, referrals, and mediation services were to be offered first, with legal representation in court pending further Legal Aid legislation.
In January 2023, Zambia abolished the death penalty followed by repeal of defamation of the President as a criminal offence. The development “followed years of advocacy efforts by concerned stakeholders, such as the National Human Rights Commission, civil society groups, development partners, the UN team, and other partners.”
Known as the “Patriotic Bill,” in July 2023, Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa signed the Criminal Law Codification and Reform Amendment Bill 2022, making it an offence punishable up to twenty years imprisonment for those calling for military intervention or sanctions against the country and outlawing criticism of the government. The bill was passed hours after the government announced parliamentary and presidential elections in August 2023, which saw Mnangagwa securing a second term, the law’s passage sparking fears of a crackdown on dissent.
Published in June 2023, in December 2020 the African Court issued an advisory opinion holding that many vagrancy laws, which consider the poor, homeless, or unemployed to be criminals, in a majority of countries in Africa violate many rights of those punished under them. The Court concluded that signatories to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights have an obligation to amend or repeal their vagrancy laws.
In September 2023, the African Commission held that the 2014–2015 arbitrary arrest, detention, and denial of access to medical services to Sudanese activist Dr. Amin Mekki Medani and opposition leader Farouq Abu Eissa violated their rights under the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights.
In September 2023, African Heads of State met in Nairobi for the AU’s inaugural Africa Climate Summit, recognizing that climate change is the “single biggest threat to life” and expressing concern that African countries face disproportionate risks from climate change-related events. The call to action included accelerating all efforts to reduce emissions to align with the goals of the Paris Agreement.
Four coups in the fifteen-member bloc in the past three years have undermined ECOWAS’ ability to meet its goals. Established in 1975 with the mission of achieving regional economic integration, the bloc revised its treaty in July 1993 to include the facilitation of peace, security, and stability in West Africa. In December 2001, it also adopted the Supplementary Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance, which holds that “every accession to power must be made through free, fair and transparent elections,” and that member states must demonstrate a “zero tolerance for power obtained or maintained by unconstitutional means.” Presiding Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s vows to stop recurrent takeovers following consecutive coups in Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso, and Niger, however, were met with backlash from bloc members forcing it to consider whether military intervention or the reverse, its failure to reinstall Bazoum in Niger, would irreversibly weaken it.
First sending troops into the strife-torn eastern DRC last November after a resurgence of the M23 rebel group, in September the seven-nation EAC extended the force’s mandate to December pending an evaluation report. The deployment had been in doubt after DRC President Felix Tshisekedi criticized the force but the EAC decided in June to keep the troops on the ground for another three months.
Established in 2008 and extended in 2021, in January the African Legal Support Facility launched a new Medium-Term Strategy 2023–2027. The AfDB established the Facility to support African governments with legal and technical assistance in commercial transactions for sustainable development, and the new strategy undercased intensifies activities for greater, more sustainable impact across sovereign finance, natural resources, energy, infrastructure, and public-private partnerships.
Among Afreximbank’s 2023 deals, in October the bank announced the issue of the first-ever multi-border transit bond, the $10 million bond issued in favor of Innovate General Insurance (IGI) of Zambia, which is expected to provide counter guarantees and boost IGI’s capacity to issue bonds to Clearing and Forwarding Agents in Zambia. Earlier in October, the Bank entered into an MOU with Morocco to develop a $1 billion Morocco-Africa Trade and Investment Promotion program.
Jointly organized by the ECA, AfDB, and UNDP, the 2023 African Economic Conference (AEC) was held in hybrid format in Addis Ababa in November. With the theme, “Imperatives for Sustainable Industrial Development in Africa,” the Conference reviewed industrialization on the continent, looking to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and the aspirations of Agenda 2063.
Following SADC’s Electoral Observer Mission (SEOM)’s conclusion that the Zimbabwe elections were fraudulent, in September, the “SADC Organ Troika” (the SADC Parliamentary Forum, SADC Secretariat, and SADC Electoral Advisory Council) criticized Zimbabwe authorities’ conduct over the elections, instructing the SADC Secretariat to communicate its censure to Harare. The SADC Protocol on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation authorizes the SADC Organ on Politics, Defence, and Security Cooperation, managed by the Troika, to use conflict resolution measures to resolve political crises, including “enforcement as a last resort.”
In January 2023, trade experts from seventeen countries met in Nairobi under the COMESA-EAC-SADC Tripartite Agreement for the Tripartite Trade Negotiation Forum (TTNF) where they reviewed progress to make the Tripartite Free Trade Area operational and unlock trade and investment opportunities for the twenty-nine Member States, eleven countries ratifying to date. Established in 2008 with a combined GDP of approximately $1.6 trillion and a population of about 800 million, the Tripartite bloc is a formidable market, second only to the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) market.
In June 2023, Eritrea rejoined IGAD after sixteen years in a move to rebuild ties with its neighbors. The country had quit the regional bloc in 2007 to protest the deployment of Ethiopian troops to Somalia to force out al-Shabab fighters who controlled most of southern Somalia at the time.
In June 2023, Gabon’s then-President and Chairman of ECCAS, Ali Bongo Ondimba, convened the bloc’s twenty-third Ordinary Session of the Conference of Heads of State and Government of ECCAS Member States on the theme of community financing to accelerate integration in the Central African region and support its institutional reform. In September 2023, following the coup that ousted its president, the bloc suspended Gabon’s membership, condemning the use of force to resolve political conflicts.
Established in 1993, OHADA marked thirty years with a colloquium on the successes and future of the legal integration tool. OHADA seeks to create a common legal framework for its seventeen member states to promote economic integration and growth.
In August 2023, UNMICT, the successor to the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (UNICTR), ruled that alleged financier Félicien Kabuga, the last major suspect of the 1994 genocide, was unfit to stand trial for reasons of senile dementia. Marking the end of an era, the Appeals Chamber sent the case back to the trial court, formally suspending proceedings that had taken nearly thirty years.
Committee Editor (Bodley); Angola (Silva, Frazão, Osório); Benin (Ed.); Botswana (Ed., Cocchi); Burkina Faso (Barad; Ed.); Burundi (Ed.); Cameroon (Ed.); Cape Verde (Silva, Frazão, Osório, Ed.); CAR (Ed.); Chad (Ed.); Comoros (Ed.); DRC (Ed.); Congo (Silva, Frazão, Osório); Côte d’Ivoire (Ed.); Djibouti (Ed.); Equatorial Guinea (Ed.); Eritrea (Ed., Cocchi); Ethiopia (Ed.); Gabon (Ed., [Silva, Frazão, Osório]); Gambia (Bah; Anyanwu); Ghana (Jones-Nelson); Guinea (Ed.); Guinea-Bissau (Ed.); Kenya (Mweseli); Lesotho (Ed.); Liberia (Williams); Madagascar (Ed.); Malawi (Mulwafu; Zawanda; Chitha); Mali (Barad); Mauritania (Ed.); Mauritius (Ed.); Mozambique (Silva, Frazão, Osório); Namibia (Ed.); Niger (Barad; Tossa); Nigeria (Anyanwu); Rwanda (Ed., Williams); São Tomé and Príncipe (Silva, Frazão, Osório, Ed.); Senegal (Ed.); Seychelles (Ed.); Sierra Leone (Ed.); Somalia (Ed.); South Africa (Gaskins); South Sudan (Chitha; Ed.); Sudan (Ed.); Swaziland (Eswatini) (Ed.); Tanzania (Ed.); Togo (Ed.); Uganda (Gitonga, Cocchi); Western Sahara (Cocchi, Ed.); Zambia (Ed.); Zimbabwe (Jones-Nelson; Anyanwu); AfCHPR (Ed.); AfComm. (Ed.); AU (Gaskins; Jones-Nelson); ECOWAS (Gassikia); EAC (Ed.); AfDB (Ed., Cocchi); Afreximbank (Williams); ECA (Ed.); SADC (Ed.); COMESA (Mweseli); IGAD (Ed., Cocchi); ECCAS (Ed.); OHADA (Ed.); and UNMICT (Bah).
