Aid workers, journalists, and religious and political leaders are being harassed, detained and silenced by governments in sub-Saharan Africa, and a Congressional global human rights panel held a critical hearing on Wednesday, chaired by Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ), to examine what the U.S. can do now to protect them.

“The closing of space for faith-based organizations and other civil society organizations is a worrying trend in a number of sub-Saharan countries,” Rep. Smith, long-time human rights advocate and Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations, stated at the hearing of the subcommittee on “Protecting Civil Society, Faith-Based Actors, and Political Speech in Sub-Saharan Africa.”

“As we learned from the U.S. civil rights movement, groups such as churches and independent journalists are the safekeepers of civil liberties,” Rep. Smith stated. “Through sanctions and public diplomacy tools, the international community can protect the space for these safe-keepers to operate in sub-Saharan Africa.” (To read Chairman Smith’s full testimony, click here)

Witnesses at the hearing provided an on-the-ground perspective of how in countries such as Sudan, South Sudan, Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), journalists have been harassed by authorities, aid groups are being coerced into registering with the government, churches and mosques are being confiscated or destroyed, and religious leaders have been targets of harassment and violence.

In Burundi, news outlets like Voice of America (VOA) and the BBC have seen their operations suspended in the country just weeks before a constitutional referendum on presidential term limits. VOA’s broadcasting operations to Africa in English and French, as well as its broadcasting in Swahili and its broadcasting to Central Africa, have all been impacted.

Click HERE or on video below to watch the hearing. (Slide the red bar to the left to 1:45 p.m. to see the start of the hearing).



“This case in Burundi is purely symptomatic of the increasing difficulty we face in sub-Saharan Africa to support freedom of information, democracy, and human rights,” Negussie Mengesha, the director of Voice of America’s Africa Division, stated in his written testimony to the subcommittee.

“In the past year, VOA has covered contentious elections in Kenya and Liberia and the political transition in Zimbabwe. We have faced jamming in Ethiopia. Ali Nur Siad, a cameraman working for VOA in Mogadishu, was killed in an October bombing. The threats to our independence, censorship, and the security of those working for us are daily realities for VOA,” Mengesha stated. (To read Mengesha’s full testimony, click here)

Nanythe Talani, a representative of the Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition (TASSC), said in her testimony that she was harassed by authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo after reporting on the ritual murders of women there, and following her criticism of perpetrators who are protected by their connections to those in positions of authority.

“I was so frightened by government agents watching me, my friends and relatives that I left my home to move in with my cousin and some male relatives whom I felt could protect me. This was when other journalists were also being harassed in my country,” Talani stated in her testimony before the subcommittee.

“When you are constantly afraid because you could be attacked, assaulted, raped, jailed or even killed by people who will walk away with impunity, what kind of professionalism can you display as journalist? What kind of daily life can you have? This is what I was facing in Congo. This is what journalists are facing in my country,” she stated. (To read Talani’s full testimony, click here)

NGOs in Sudan must receive government approval to receive foreign funding, without which their funding would be almost “non-existent,” Emerson Sykes, legal advisor for Africa for the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law, stated before members of the subcommittee. Certain civil society organizations in the South Sudan were told by the government in 2016 to register as political parties, he added. (To read Sykes’ full testimony, click here)

“In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, freedom of assembly has been under threat as public protests related to the delayed presidential elections have spread. The UN found that 47 protesters had been killed in the 13 month-period ending January 31, 2018,” Sykes stated.

The U.S. must prioritize promoting religious freedom in its foreign policy -- especially in sub-Saharan Africa, Steven Harris, policy director at the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention stated.

“Consistent with many of the recommendations of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom’s Sudan report, we strongly urge that religious freedom be a serious factor taken into account as a foreign policy priority as the United States considers the nature of its relationships to these African countries,” Harris stated in his testimony. (To read Harris’ full testimony, click here)

To counter these abuses, the U.S. must also use tools at its disposal—like diplomacy or the use of sanctions—to spur leaders in these countries to respect these civil liberties, witnesses said.

In particular, the U.S. should use strong measures like network sanctions and anti-money laundering measures, John Prendergast Co-Founder of The Sentry, an organization that reports on the financial dealings of those profiting from conflicts, genocide, and other mass atrocities in Africa, stated in his testimony at the hearing.

“Condemning words are fine,” Prendergast stated, “but the issues that we’re talking about today require serious actions that impose serious consequences.” Network sanctions, that target not only individual human rights abusers but those persons or entities working on their behalf like their networks and companies, would be a vital part of this response, he said.

“We believe network sanctions would have a dramatic impact on protecting civil societies in sub-Saharan Africa,” Prendergast stated. (To read Prendergast’s full testimony, click here)