Oppression intensifies in the Republic of Congo (Congo-Brazzaville). In any case, this is according to a report published on Monday, April 19 by Amnesty International.
Since 2014 and the fall in oil prices, the country has experienced serious economic problems. And the coronavirus crisis has not helped. Faced with this situation, many voices are raised to condemn the poor handling of the crisis by the government of Denis Sassou-Nguesso, re-elected for a fourth term on March 21 and who has just taken an oath. And the Congolese government is trying to silence them, according to Amnesty International.
“Oppression is multifaceted,” explains Fabien Offner, spokesman for NGOs and researchers on Central Africa, together with Justine Laurel of the Africa service. We are first and foremost in a country where freedom of expression, the right to demonstrate in general are not respected …
We have had several cases of human rights defenders, most recently, before the presidential election, which were held arbitrarily and are still in prison today.
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We had student unions that were even arrested outside the Congo, that would be brought back to the Congo, and that would in all likelihood have been tortured.
We also have journalists who were fired after asking the ministers some disturbing questions about the handling of the Covid-19 crisis …
So it is a set of things which means that not only the Congolese were in an extremely complicated socio-economic situation due to the crisis but also due to violations of international law by the Congolese authorities. And the same authorities could not only necessarily solve these problems but also exercised an oppression against those who expressed criticism of this situation ”.
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