Torture thriving in Africa – AI report

Governments across Africa are betraying their commitments to stamp out torture, Amnesty International said as it launched its latest global campaign, Stop Torture on Tuesday. According to the organization the continent lags behind the rest of the world in criminalizing the practice AI reporting torture in at least 24 Sub-Saharan African countries since the turn of the year (2014).

It said given that such abuses are carried out in secret locations, the true number of torture cases could be much higher than originally thought.

AI which has monitored torture and other ill-treatment in 141 countries since 2009 conducted a global survey of more than 21,000 people in 21 countries across every continent.

Its campaign under the theme {Torture in 2014: 30 Years of Broken Promises}, with an overview of the use of torture around the world claims that close to half of those interviewed expressed fear of such ill-treatment if they were to be taken into custody with 80 percent of them calling for strong legislation to protect them from the practice.

According to the report the Nigerian police and military personnel for example use torture as a matter of routine while in South Africa allegations of abuse including the use of electric shocks and beatings have also emerged in recent years.

The report says only ten African nations have adopted domestic legislation outlawing torture, Algeria, Burundi, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Madagascar, Mauritius, Senegal and Tunisia.