—- As new Report Catalog How African Autocrats Changes Strategy to Eliminate & Suppressed Opposition
IPNEWS: A new report by international acclaimed media House ‘Aljazeera’, details how the police and military are now being replaced by government across Africa with thugs as weapons of violence to build a veil of deniability for atrocities against dissent voices and eliminate the opposition.
The report states that autocratic regimes in Africa remain adamant in changing their stripes of oppression for dissent voices and opposition leaders by disguising their hate with the use of Street goons otherwise known as ‘Zogos”.
Aljazeera’s documentary is detailed in that for many years African dictators and autocrats relied on the police and other security forces – who used brute force against opposition supporters – to suppress dissent, eliminate critics and consolidate their grip on power.
From Liberia to Kenya in East Africa, police organizations have traditionally been known to help dictators in rigging elections, crushing public demonstrations, and abducting members of the opposition and civil society.
In Zimbabwe, under Robert Mugabe, became notorious for this ever since his ruling party started facing serious political opposition at the turn of the century.
Yet the rise of human rights organizations and their documentation of these practices have helped to pressure African governments, while also informing decisions on foreign aid, sanctions and other dimensions of international cooperation.
The response of Africa’s autocrats?
Police brutality, while still an effective instrument of repression in many countries, is being tactically replaced or aided by a more devious and cruder devise: thuggery. It’s a shift in practice that the international community must recognize, monitor and adapt to, if governments they share aid with are to be held accountable.
In Liberia in July, and in Nigeria and Guinea in recent years, Aljazeera says it has seen governments use street goons against members of the opposition. These thugs are often more vicious than even the police, are difficult to trace and allow governments deniability in ways that makes it very hard to hold anyone responsible.
The report named recent July 26, 2022, protest by the Student Unification Party (SUP), at the University of Liberia, against the rising cost and declining standards of living, as a case.
The incident led to scores of injuries by the students by the pro-government called CDC Council of Patriot.
Shortly after the situation, Liberia’s President George Manneh Weah, denied any link with the CDC Council of Patriot and ordered a full-scale investigation into the matter.
Similarly, to the incident in Liberia on July 26, 2022, in Nigeria, during a mass citizen’s demonstration in October 2020, demanding that a rogue police force in Nigeria called the Special Anti-Robbery Squad or SARS be disbanded, the Nigerian government reportedly hired thugs who violently attacked the protesters.
Just as Liberia and Nigeria, the Aljazeera documentary detailed that Guinea’s former ruling party also became notorious for mobilizing its supporters to violently crush opposition demonstration against then President Alpha Conde’s third term bid in 2020.
The typical reaction, Aljazeera says it sees from governments after these events is to condemn the violence and distance themselves from the thugs, promising to bring perpetrators to justice. However, as these goons largely focus on disrupting anti-government demonstrations and targeting opposition figures, their role as shadow warriors for undemocratic regimes should be evident to all neutral observers.
African Governments according to Aljazeera, have a ready pool of recruits to tap into, as Africa’s youth continue to battle poverty and economic uncertainty.
Making particular reference to Liberia, Aljazeera states that “Zogos”, as delinquent youth and petty street criminals are commonly called, are frequently seen at political rallies and demonstrations. Instead of addressing the policy failures that are driving these young people into drugs, crime and thuggery, Liberian politicians have instrumentalized them as an effective weapon against their political opponents.
To understand the effectiveness of this strategy, according to Aljazeera, one needs to consider two instances in recent months.
“In May, Human Rights Watch rightly criticized Burundi’s security agencies for a violent crackdown on opposition members. However, the global community is yet to respond forcefully to the July 26 attacks on protesters in Liberia.”
” Human rights organizations and pro-democracy movements across the continent and beyond must closely watch this trend. Rather than accepting feeble statements from governments that distance themselves from violence and issue weak-willed promises of “enforcing the law”, they must hold them to account for not protecting demonstrators from thugs.”
“The very fact that governments in Africa have changed their tactics against opponents shows that such efforts to hold them accountable can be effective in impacting access to foreign aid and international support for oppressive regimes.”
“Autocrats will always look for new ways to target critics. It’s important for activists and human rights organizations to stay one step ahead of them, in order to demand – and secure – justice.” An Aljazeera Documentary notes.
