Human rights report: Private security companies in Africa violate human rights

Ali Ragab

On the sidelines of its participation in the activities of the 68th session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the Maat Foundation for Peace, Development and Human Rights released a new study entitled “Private Military Companies in Africa and Their Impact on Human Rights Case Studies: Libya and the Central African Republic”.

The study traces the development of private security companies in Africa and their role, which is not only limited to providing security but also assisting governments or implementing their own agendas for their countries. It emphasized that these companies had created a dangerous “gray zone” in which private military companies operate. The paper focused on studying the cases of Libya and the Central African Republic, and it dealt with the impact of these private companies on the human rights situations in both countries.

In this regard, Maat Director Ayman Okeil stated that Libya’s former Government of National Accord (GNA) received covert and overt international support from a large number of actors through security companies, which turned the country into a proxy conflict, in light of the maze of private military actors that have been recruited, especially from Russia (Wagner Group) and Turkey. Okeil also warned of the indiscriminate attacks caused by private security companies there, which caused the death of thousands of civilians, the destruction of vital infrastructure, disappearances, arbitrary detention, unlawful killings, and torture, to name a few, all without any legal liability for them or their states.

Okeil pointed out that the increasing threat in the Central African Republic, in which the situation has escalated into greater violence since 2013, has led to an increasing role for private security companies, especially Russian, which have been used to respond to violence and killings against civilians there. He called on the international community to clarify the “gray zone” contained in international law about the legal status of these companies, which gave them a greater opportunity for lack of accountability for themselves or their countries.

It is worth noting that Maat Foundation for Peace, Development and Human Rights is currently participating as an observer member of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights in its sixty-eighth session, and it is holding awareness seminars on the sidelines of the session’s work.