Benin: Hustle Culture Emerges in Benin in Face of High Graduate Unemployment

At just 11 years old, with a heavy heart, Louis peered up at his parents and said goodbye. He was leaving his small village in northern Benin to live with his uncle in Parakou,… Read more »

Nigeria: Severe Floods in Nigeria Magnify the Dire Humanitarian Crisis

On Monday, the Alau dam in Maiduguri, Borno State, collapsed, causing flash floods to ravage neighbouring regions in Nigeria. This comes after weeks of torrential rain, which… Read more »

Togo: 'The International Community Must Send a Clear Message That Power Grabs Won't Be Tolerated'

CIVICUS discusses the crackdown on civil society in Togo with a human rights defender who asked to stay anonymous for security reasons. Read more »

Nigeria: Nigeria - Protecting the Vulnerable On the Path to Progress

Returning to Nigeria after five years, I was struck by the changes - both the challenges and the opportunities. To better understand these dynamics, I have been undertaking visits… Read more »

Africa: Africa's Strong Case for Reforms of UN Security Council Led By Sierra Leone Presidency

At most international forums, including the annual UN General Assembly high-level debate, Sierra Leonean President Julius Maada Bio consistently highlights the injustices of the… Read more »

Mauritania: Mauritania Pilots Digital ID App

Governments are increasingly adopting the digital public infrastructure (DPI) approach to deliver public services. An essential component of this is digital identity. Digital… Read more »

Nigeria: Why #EndBadGovernanceInNigeria Protests Gained Traction

Thousands of Nigerians have taken to the streets to protest against bad governance, corruption, soaring inflation, and the rising cost of living, in what has been termed "10 Days… Read more »

West Africa: Ecowas At 49 - Successes in Regional Integration, Despite Emerging Challenges

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) was founded in 1975 to promote economic integration in the region. Forty-nine years later, the regional bloc boasts… Read more »

West Africa: Navigating Mental Health Challenges in West Africa

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, approximately 116 million people in the African region were living with mental health conditions. A large proportion of mental disorders is caused… Read more »

Nigeria: Women Lawyers Take Lead in Decongesting Prisons

Nyeche Uche, aged 60, got arrested by Nigeria's cybercrime fighter, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, for stealing. He spent 13 years and eight months in prison while… Read more »

Sierra Leone: New Child Marriages, Cohabitation With a Child Law in Sierra Leone Lauded

"A person shall not contract marriage with a child," Sierra Leone's landmark Prohibition of Child Marriage Act 2024 says, outlawing, in no uncertain terms, child marriage, giving… Read more »

West Africa: Free Speech Under Siege - Across West Africa

Authoritarian overreach is re-defining itself across West Africa, fuelled by armed conflicts, military coups, and electoral manipulation and violence, as the region experiences a… Read more »

Nigeria: Climate Change, Ethnicity and Neglect Fuel Violence in Nigeria's Kaduna State

Lami Kwasu, a farmer in the village of Kafanchan in Kaduna State, north-central Nigeria, was at home one evening in October 2020 when the sound of sporadic gunshots filled the air. Read more »

Niger: Niger's Military Coup Triggers Child Marriages, Sex Work in Neighboring Countries

A group of young girls aged between 15 and 17 sit tight, following attentively a lesson being taught by a Mualim (Islamic teacher) in a makeshift madrassah (Qur'anic school)… Read more »

Gambia: The Gambia Must Not Repeal FGM Ban

Earlier this month, a UNICEF report on the prevalence of female genital mutilation (FGM) showed that while some success is taking place, the pace of progress remains slow - lagging… Read more »

Africa: Indigenous Women Fight for Their Future, Their Land, Rights & Self-Determination

Throughout history, Indigenous Women have made remarkable contributions to forwarding the aspirations of their communities for self-determination. Amid the compounded burdens they… Read more »

Africa: Gender Rights - Resistance Against Regression

Global progress on gender rights has slowed almost to a halt. After decades of steady progress, demands for the rights of women and LGBTQI+ people now play out on bitterly… Read more »

Ghana: How a Program in Ghana to Create Green Jobs Can Be a Lesson for U.S. Mayors & Across the Globe

For the past eight years, Chiso has collected waste as part of Accra's informal waste management sector. Since arriving in Ghana from Nigeria, he has earned enough to allow him and… Read more »

Nigeria: State Fails to Stem Kidnapping for Ransom Crisis in Nigeria

Lilian Eze still shivers when she recalls the frequent attacks by kidnappers in the Kaduna community she once lived in, in north-central Nigeria. In February 2022, she fled with… Read more »

Nigeria: From Gas to Ash - the Struggle of Nigerian Women Amidst Surging Cooking Gas Prices

One sunny mid-morning in Omu-Aran village, a community in Kwara State, North Central Nigeria, Iyabo Sunday sat beside a firewood stand observing her pot of beans with rice (a… Read more »

Africa: No God but Greed - Slavery and Indifference

At Statens Museum for Kunst in Copenhagen there is a great painting made in 1797 by the Danish Golden Age painter Jens Juel. It depicts one of Denmark's richest merchants at the… Read more »

Nigeria: Call for Scaled Up Funding for Much-Needed, Successful Joint Program in Nigeria

Nigeria is home to 15 percent of the world's out-of-school children. More than 7.6 million girls are not in school, and only nine percent of the poorest girls in the country are in… Read more »

Africa: Trapped and Trafficked - Fishers Tell of Forced Labor Horror

"The thing is that when you come from an African country, they know that you're basically trapped," says Noel Adabblah. Read more »

Ghana: It's Time to Align Climate Finance and Social Justice, Says Youth Climate Activist

During his childhood, Joshua Amponsem spent a lot of time in his dry rural community collecting water from the streams. ''It was normal,'' the co-director of the Youth Climate… Read more »

West Africa: Deforestation, Encroachment Threaten West Africa's One Health Plans

Thirty-three years ago, Bala Amerasekaran - a Sri Lankan by birth - visited Freetown, Sierra Leone. Since then, the West African nation has been his home, where Amerasekaran has… Read more »