Africa

The group, Gafcon, says that its followers believe "the Bible requires a male-only episcopacy".

The group, Gafcon, says that its followers believe "the Bible requires a male-only episcopacy".

The group, Gafcon, says that its followers believe "the Bible requires a male-only episcopacy".

It is estimated that the Taliban have enforced over 5,000 forced marriages over the past four years. Thousands of girls have not only been stripped of their right to education but compelled into marriages over which they had no choice. Credit: Learning Together.

By External Source
KABUL, Oct 3 2025 (IPS)

After the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan, they banned girls’ education beyond the sixth grade. Human rights groups say the policy is a major driver of the rise in underage and forced marriages involving Afghan girls.

Zarghona, 42, a widowed mother of four, says her three underage daughters were taken from her and forcibly married to former classmates. After schools and universities for girls were closed, all three daughters, who hoped to become nurses and midwives, were deprived of education and confined to their home.

“To prevent my daughters from becoming depressed, I sent them to a madrasa (religious school) near our house, on the advice of neighbors,” Zarghona says. They received religious education for a year, but things soon began to change.

“One day, a woman came to our house under the pretext of renting a room, and after that, the frequency of her visits increased. I gradually realized that she was targeting my daughters.”

One day a Taliban recruiter, a classmate of theirs at the madrassa, followed the girls to her house and demanded the two younger daughters as wives to his brothers.

“When I rejected their proposal, they told me, either I marry off my daughters to the older men or they would harm my son, they threatened”.

Under pressure, Zarghona says she was forced to consent to the marriages without her daughters’ approval.

“For me and my daughters, the wedding was not a celebration, it was a mourning ceremony” Zarghona lamented, adding, “I had no choice but to surrender.”

The wedding was not a formal Afghan ceremony, but rather a simple religious ceremony conducted by the Mullahs. Her oldest daughter was not forcibly married.

Afterwards, Zarghona was barred from seeing her daughters. She said money had to be secretly sent to them through prepaid mobile transfers. Life became even harder for the daughters.

“Each day came with more restrictions on how they dressed and where they could go. I couldn’t defend them, and my heart was never at peace, she said, sad and embittered.

The older of the two daughters is now 19. She already has one child and is expecting another. The younger daughter has not yet become pregnant and because of that she was permitted to see a doctor, which also enabled Zarghona to meet her secretly in the doctor’s reception area. She said both had lost weight and were shadows of their former selves. Both had bruises and looked scared.

After being forced to marriage many young girls in Afghanistan are not allowed to go out. Credit: Learning Together.

Zarghona decided to go to Iran for a while to ease herself from the painful reality of her daughters’ situation. But when she heard their cries over the phone, she returned to Afghanistan. She says, “Less than three days after I came back, they beat me up and my daughters and even locked us inside our home.”

Zarghona adds that she now has no contact with her daughters and believes their situation remains critical. “All doors for seeking help are closed to me. The government is patriarchal, and no organization supports women’s rights,” she says.

It is estimated that the Taliban have enforced over 5,000 forced marriages over the past four years. Thousands of girls have not only been stripped of their right to education but compelled into marriages over which they had no choice.

Human rights organizations and the United Nations have warned that the ban on girls’ education is fueling domestic violence, poverty, suicides, forced marriages, and Afghanistan’s political isolation.

According to recent assessments by UNICEF and the World Bank, more than one million girls have been denied the right to education since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan.

Excerpt:

The author is an Afghanistan-based female journalist, trained with Finnish support before the Taliban take-over. Her identity is withheld for security reasons

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Credit: Pavel Bednyakov/Pool via Reuters

By Inés M. Pousadela
MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay, Oct 3 2025 (IPS)

When Mali’s former Prime Minister Moussa Mara stood trial in Bamako’s cybercrime court on 29 September, charged with undermining state authority for expressing solidarity with political prisoners on social media, his prosecution represented far more than one person’s fate. It epitomised how thoroughly the military junta has dismantled Mali’s democratic foundations, five years after seizing power with promises of swift reform.

Just a week before Mara’s trial, Mali joined fellow military-run states Burkina Faso and Niger in announcing immediate withdrawal from the International Criminal Court (ICC). Although the withdrawal won’t take effect for a year and the ICC retains jurisdiction over past crimes, the message was unmistakable: Mali’s military rulers intend to operate beyond international legal constraints.

This follows a pattern of escalating repression, including arrests of senior generals and civilians over alleged conspiracy in August, coming months after sweeping decrees outlawed political parties and dissolved all organised opposition. Rather than preparing for the democratic handover initially promised for 2022 and repeatedly postponed, the junta is methodically shutting down what remains of Mali’s civic space.

A transition derailed

When General Assimi Goïta first seized power in August 2020 following mass protests over corruption and insecurity, he pledged to oversee a quick return to civilian rule. But less than a year later, he staged a second coup to sideline transitional civilian leaders. In 2023, the junta organised a constitutional referendum, claiming it would pave the way to democracy. The new constitution, supposedly approved by 97 per cent of voters, provided for significantly strengthened presidential powers while conveniently granting amnesty to coup participants. Deadlines for elections kept slipping, and they’re now effectively off the table until at least 2030.

A national consultation held in April, boycotted by virtually all major political parties, recommended appointing Goïta as president for a renewable five-year term until 2030, obviously contradicting any pledges to restore multi-party democracy.

An all-out assault on political parties ensued. Presidential decrees in May suspended all parties, revoked the 2005 Charter of Political Parties that provided the legal framework for political competition and dissolved close to 300 parties, forbidding all meetings or activities under threat of prosecution. Courts predictably rejected appeals, having become beholden to the executive under the 2023 constitutional changes that gave Goïta absolute control over Supreme Court appointments. The regime announced a new law on political parties to sharply restrict their number and impose stricter formation requirements, making clear it wants a tightly managed political landscape stripped of genuine pluralism.

Crushing civic freedoms

The assault on civic space extends beyond political parties. The junta has suspended civil society groups receiving foreign funding, imposed stringent regulatory controls and introduced draft legislation aimed at taxing civil society organisations. Independent media face systematic silencing through licence suspensions and revocations, astronomic increases in licence fees and weaponised cybercrime laws targeting journalists with vague charges such as undermining state credibility and spreading false information. Religious figures, opposition leaders and civil society activists have faced arrests, enforced disappearances and show trials.

The crackdown sparked the first major public resistance to military rule since 2020, with thousands protesting in Bamako in early May against the party ban and extension of Goïta’s mandate, only to be dispersed with teargas. Planned follow-up protests were cancelled after organisers received warnings of violent retaliation. The regime has made clear it won’t tolerate peaceful dissent.

What lies ahead

Five years after seizing power, Mali keeps taking the opposite path to democracy. The initial coup enjoyed some popular support, fuelled by anger at corruption and the civilian government’s failure to address jihadist insurgencies. But no improvements have come. Jihadist groups are still killing thousands every year, while the Malian army and its new Russian mercenary allies, following the departure of French and allied forces, routinely commit atrocities against civilians. Meanwhile the freedoms that would allow people to voice grievances and demand accountability have been systematically stripped away.

Mali’s trajectory matters beyond its borders. It was the first in a series of Central and West African countries to fall under military rule in recent years and is now spearheading a regional pushback against global democracy and human rights standards. The international community has responded with condemnations from UN human rights experts and documentation from civil society groups, but these statements carry little weight. Economic Community of West African States sanctions lost their leverage when Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger withdrew to form the rival Alliance of Sahel States, creating a bloc of authoritarian military regimes that coordinate to suppress dissent across borders, backed by stronger ties to Russia.

What began as a supposed corrective to civilian misrule has hardened into outright authoritarianism dressed in the language of national security and public order. The junta has eliminated any domestic institution that might constrain its power and is now casting aside even international accountability mechanisms.

In this bleak context, Malian civil society activists, journalists and opposition figures continue speaking out at tremendous personal risk. Their courage demands more than statements of condemnation. It calls for tangible support in the form of emergency funding, secure communication channels, legal assistance, temporary refuge and sustained diplomatic pressure. The international community’s commitment to human rights and democratic values, in Mali and across Central and West Africa, must translate into meaningful solidarity with those risking everything to defend them.

Inés M. Pousadela is CIVICUS Head of Research and Analysis, co-director and writer for CIVICUS Lens and co-author of the State of Civil Society Report.

For interviews or more information, please contact research@civicus.org

 

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On 26 September 2025, children stand outside a tent being used for medical services at Al Aqsa Hospital in Deir al Balah in the Gaza Strip. Credit: UNICEF/James Elder

By Oritro Karim
UNITED NATIONS, Oct 3 2025 (IPS)

In recent months, the humanitarian situation in Gaza has sharply deteriorated, with escalating hostilities driving mass civilian displacement and overwhelming the already fragile healthcare system, pushing it to the brink of collapse. UN officials are warning that thousands of civilians have been left with life-altering injuries without treatment.

As the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) continues its ground offensive into Gaza City, a series of evacuation orders have forced civilians to flee from the north of the enclave to the south. As of October 1, all remaining health facilities in Gaza are operating at partially functional capacities, facing critical shortages of medical supplies, straining access to basic, emergency services. Thousands of patients are crowded into shelters with poor sanitation, left vulnerable to explosives, and face malnutrition and life-altering injuries.

“Families in southern Gaza are squeezed into these and other overcrowded shelters or makeshift tents along the coast,” said UN Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq. “Many others are sleeping out in the open, often amid rubble. New arrivals in the south face poor sanitation, no privacy or safety, and a high risk of children being separated from their families – all while being exposed to explosive ordnance.”

On October 2, the World Health Organization (WHO) released an update on its findings related to trauma and the scale of medical needs in Gaza. Dr. Rik Peeperkorn, WHO’s Representative for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, gave a virtual briefing to reporters at UN Headquarters noting that trauma is widespread, with some 42,000 civilians sustaining life-changing injuries—about one-quarter of them children.

“These life changing injuries account for one quarter of all reported injuries, of a total of over 167,300 people injured since October 2023,” said Peeperkorn. “Survivors struggle with trauma, loss and daily survival where psychosocial referral services remain scarce.”

According to the report, the estimated number of civilians requiring long-term rehabilitation for conflict-related injuries has nearly doubled, rising from 22,500 in July 2024 to at least 41,844 by September. WHO has recorded high numbers of blast-related trauma, including amputations, burns, spinal cord injuries, maxillofacial and ocular damage, and traumatic brain injuries. These conditions often result in severe impairment and disfigurement, with many patients unable to access lifesaving care.

The report highlights a severe lack of access to reconstructive surgery and rehabilitation services, compounded by famine, unsanitary living conditions, disease outbreaks, and a critical shortage of psychosocial care—all of which disproportionately affect the most vulnerable populations. People with disabilities and chronic health conditions bear the heaviest burden, lacking critical access to sustained, long-term support.

The recent surge in cases of Guillain-Barré Syndrome—an autoimmune disorder that attacks peripheral nerves outside the brain and spinal cord—has further intensified these challenges. Additionally, medical experts project that the long-term impacts of famine, disease, and displacement will be particularly challenging for Gazans to recover from in the foreseeable future.

Peeperkorn informed reporters that long-term recovery will be difficult for the vast majority of civilians due to rampant food insecurity. “If you talk to the physicians and medical specialists in hospitals, they said even the simple trauma wounds did not recover quickly because almost all of them had a level of malnutrition. The whole recovery process was very extended,” said Peeperkorn.

According to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), humanitarian organizations delivered just over 14,400 metric tons of food to Gaza through the UN-coordinated aid system—less than 26 percent of what is needed to meet basic daily needs. More than 77 percent of this aid was lost in transit, severely limiting the amount that reached partner warehouses for distribution.

“There’s a bit more food, that’s definitely true,” said Peeperkorn. “Prices are still way too high for many of the families and the food is still not diverse enough if you have a number of specifically vulnerable groups.”

Currently, less than 14 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals remain partially functional, with 8 of them being in Gaza City. Between September 11-28, WHO recorded 44 health services points that went out of service. Peeperkorn noted that approximately 200,000 to 300,000 civilians fled from the north of the enclave to the south, while roughly 800,000 to 900,000 remained in the north, where access to basic services is particularly strained.

“Health services in the north Gaza governorate are only provided through one particularly functioning medical point. We see fast declining shortages for essential items such as dressing kits, particularly gauze, but also essential post-operative wound care materials critically impact the ability for trauma cases.”

Peeperkorn noted that WHO has positioned a range of medical supplies for delivery to Gaza, widespread insecurity and access restrictions continue to impede their distribution. As a result, health facilities in Gaza remain unable to provide specialized care beyond basic emergency treatment.

WHO has emphasized the urgent need for medical evacuations, particularly for severe cases such as brain injuries, as many patients are suffering from multiple forms of trauma. It is estimated that over 15,000 people, including 3,800 children, urgently require specialized care outside of Gaza. “We need many more countries to accept patients, and the restoration of the West Bank and East Jerusalem referral pathway,” Peeperkorn said.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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