Africa: Responsibility to Protect – Africans’ Fate Caught in Global Crises

Debating Ideas reflects the values and editorial ethos of the African Arguments book series, publishing engaged, often radical, scholarship, original and activist writing from within the African continent and beyond. It offers debates and engagements, contexts and controversies, and reviews and responses flowing from the African Arguments books. It is edited and managed by the International African Institute, hosted at SOAS University of London, the owners of the book series of the same name.

As the continent marks African Human Rights Day on 21 October 2024, the African Union, regional institutions and African states must deploy all efforts and available resources to protect African citizens abroad and everywhere.

African states in the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) adopted the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights in June 1981. In doing so, they paid homage to “the attributes of human beings which justifies their national and international protection.” More than four decades later, African lives in nearly all theatres around the world are defined by twin deficits of dignity and protection, rendering African nationals into non-persons – or a race of expendable people.

In February 2022, the war between Russia and Ukraine broke out with horrifying consequences for Africans studying in Ukraine. As they fled the war alongside their Ukrainian counterparts, they were met with racism which inhibited their access to relief services available to Ukrainians. To date, not only are they yet to get justice for the inhuman experiences they underwent in Europe, such as unlawful detention, but their plight is largely forgotten. Many of them remain stranded in different locations in Europe to which they fled. Those who managed to flee back to the continent are stranded in their educational pursuits.

In April 2023, war broke out in Sudan between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). More than a year later, Sudan is the largest displacement crisis by magnitude in the world, and its civilians are on the brink of – if not already experiencing – famine. Although neighbouring countries have opened their doors to an estimated two million refugees from Sudan, the plight and weight of the over 10.8 million internally displaced persons have been left to fellow Sudanese civilians, with little institutional support from the African Union.

Sudan, before the war, was already home to over one million refugees from its neighbouring countries. The ongoing wars have forced some of them to return to the home countries from which they had previously fled in pursuit of safety and security, rendering many of them liable to being persecuted again in violation of the very foundations of international refugee protection. Even more, these wars have devastated education, leaving many students – both Sudanese and foreign – stranded or without options.

This past September, the war between Israel and Hamas extended to Lebanon, where African migrants are employed mostly as domestic workers. Lebanon hosts over 177,000 foreign domestic workers, a third of whom come from Ethiopia, Sudan, and Kenya, aside from other African and Asian countries. Already disadvantaged by the Kafala system that encourages cruel treatment of migrant workers – including the confiscation of identity documents by employers – they are now experiencing similar discrimination as African students fleeing Ukraine in 2022.

De facto statelessness

Many Africans affected by these situations have become exposed to de facto statelessness or failure of protection. Those fleeing the war in Ukraine were not afforded the legal status of refugees like Ukrainians “just because we’re Black!”; instead, they were and continue to be referred to as third-country nationals and are treated differently. For instance, many African students have been unable to benefit from the EU’s Temporary Protection Directive which provides Ukrainians with a residence permit and access to education and labour. Those who found their way back home are struggling to re-integrate, their education cut short with no refunds for their financial investments.

In Sudan it was reported that “several foreign countries evacuated their diplomatic staff (as was their right) without returning the passports in their possession of African nationals who had sought visas or consular services.” This deepened the crisis of access to protection and assistance for the affected Sudanese.

Many African migrants in Lebanon are underprivileged and cannot afford to flee Israeli attacks on their own. Some cannot access their passports which were confiscated by their Lebanese employers who have fled to safety without regard for them. The indignity of racism has equally blocked them from accessing relief efforts extended to Lebanese. They are also stranded.

Although countries such as Ethiopia and Kenya have embarked on evacuation plans for their citizens, their efforts are neither sufficient nor sensitive. Kenya, for instance, announced a registration deadline for evacuations, even though the crisis is actively ongoing, and migrant workers are not able to steadily access information.

The indifference of African governments

Amidst all this, African governments and institutions have mostly signalled with the eloquence of their silence a disturbing indifference to these injustices and the consistent devaluing of the African life. In the face of their abandonment of these Africans in troubled theatres, it is difficult not to see them as complicit in the resulting injustices.

Efforts to alleviate the conditions of these Africans have come instead from voluntary initiatives. In the case of Lebanon, fellow migrants in conjunction with local NGOs are the ones conducting rescue missions and response efforts. In Ukraine, students from other parts of the world and mostly Black-led NGOs stepped up to provide funding for evacuation, relocation, and scholarships. In both cases, these commendable efforts are uncoordinated, ad hoc, and, predictably, insufficient and unsustainable.

On the other hand, Sudanese civilians victimised by the conflict have been at the forefront of providing humanitarian assistance to their fellow Sudanese, through initiatives such as the Emergency Response Rooms. They bravely penetrate unsafe terrains to provide food and medical services, with little support from international NGOs, inter-governmental organisations, and even the African Union. Approximately 24.8 million Sudanese need assistance.

Yet, African governments bear the primary responsibility to protect their citizens from insecurity and the devastating effects of war. By extension, they owe them justice for the wrongs committed to them domestically or internationally. In acknowledgement of this duty, they have ratified international and regional treaties responding to this situation, such as the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees; the United Nations Conventions on Statelessness of 1954 and 1961; the 1969 OAU Convention Governing the Specific Aspects of Refugee Problems in Africa; and the 2009 African Union Convention for the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons in Africa (Kampala Convention). In addition, their domestic Constitutions establish the relationship between the African citizen and the state and the rights and duties that emerge therefrom.

Paying down on justice and assistance

Regrettably, African governments seem to have retrenched or neglected the mechanisms of protection nationally as well as those for regional co-ordination at the continental level created by these treaties, leaving Africans caught in these crises in mortal peril. Yet, African governments are not without constructive options for exercising their responsibility to protect these Africans.

First, they can engage in immediate mitigation measures in the form of organised evacuation, temporary relocation arrangements, and the provision of basic assistance. African students who are now back at home from Ukraine, Sudan or other sites of crises should be supported by ensuring that they have the option and access to continue with their education at no cost and to practise their professions with recognition and minimal bureaucratic challenges.

Second, African governments must pursue justice on behalf of their citizens by way of diplomatic protection before international tribunals, if necessary. The exercise of diplomatic protection is a right that states have in international law. They can institute proceedings before the International Court of Justice against the mistreatment of their citizens by European countries and Lebanon to pursue appropriate remedies and serve as a deterrent measure against similar abuse elsewhere.

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Third, they can bring to life the provisions of the 1969 OAU Convention and the Kampala Convention by creating institutions at the African Union level to implement them. The African Union can establish a regional High Commissioner for Refugees, IDPs, and Distressed Migrants to consolidate and coordinate advocacy and mobilisation of assistance to African populations confronted by war and humanitarian crises within and outside Africa. Such an office would especially be critical to responding to conflicts like Sudan, where the state has manifestly rendered itself incapable of providing protection to anyone within its territory and is, in fact, a perpetrator of crimes and insecurity.

Fourth, the African Union lists the African Diaspora as its sixth region and an important partner in furthering continental development. Yet, it seemingly views this constituency as only a benefactor and not also deserving of protection in the face of danger abroad. With a budget, the African Union Citizens and Diaspora Directorate (CIDO) often engages the diaspora in economic or social aspects. The surge in wars, racism, and crises globally presents an urgent need for CIDO to work with African governments to protect Africans abroad.

As the continent marks African Human Rights Day on 21 October, the African Union, regional institutions and African states must deploy all efforts and available resources to protect African citizens abroad and everywhere. This is not only a primary duty for African governments; it is also the reason Africans struggled for independence.

Chepkorir Sambu is a lawyer and researcher focusing on conflicts and peace processes in Eastern Africa. Chidi Anselm Odinkalu teaches international human rights law at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts and sits on the board of Atrocities Watch Africa (AWA)

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