Africa: When human rights NGOs become weapons against the continent
For decades, Africa has been under surveillance, not the kind rooted in solidarity, but a cold, calculated scrutiny armed with damning reports, sweeping condemnations, and so-called “targeted” sanctions that always devastate ordinary citizens. Organizations like Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and Freedom House bombard the continent with monthly indictments, alarmist press releases, and humiliating rankings as if Africa needs their permission to breathe.
Yet where are these NGOs when missiles rain down on Tehran or Tel Aviv? Where are their reports when children starve, hospitals are flattened, or civilians are killed on live television? Silence.
Worse, their silence becomes complicity. But when counterterrorism operations unfold in Burkina Faso or Mali, these groups spring into action like sentinels on high alert.
Every minor incident is amplified, every political tension framed as a threat to “democracy,” while economic sanctions crafted in New York, London, or Paris crush African livelihoods.
Whenever Africa asserts sovereignty rejecting neocolonial tutelage or unfair treaties these NGOs reappear, fingers wagging: “Human rights abuses!” “Crimes against civilians!” Yet when Western powers violate the same principles, their outrage evaporates.
Let’s be clear: These NGOs don’t champion universal human rights. They advance the geopolitical and economic interests of their funders.
They are soft weapons in an undeclared war one as destructive as armed conflict waged against Africa’s dignity, sovereignty, and right to self-determination.
Africa isn’t against human rights. Africa demands respect, justice, and equal treatment. The continent refuses to be judged through a Western lens. The solution? Pan-African watchdogs, homegrown monitoring tools, and NGOs accountable to African people—not foreign agendas.
Jean OUEDRAOGO
