Amnesty International urged Malian authorities to immediately release dissident Youssouf Daba Diawara and 11 other arbitrarily detained opposition politicians in a July 19 statement. According to the statement, Mali's junta has been arbitrarily holding these political figures solely for exercising their civil rights, including the rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association. Diawara was coordinator of the Association of Movements, Friends & Supporters of Imam Mahmud Dicko (CMAS) until it was dissolved by the authorities in March. On July 12, armed men forced him out of his car in Bamako and took him to the Gendarmerie's Criminal Investigations Brigade. He was charged with "opposition to legitimate authority" for participating in a protest against power cuts and inflation in June. His trial is scheduled for October.

The UN International Organization for Migration (IOM) reported July 16 that more than 10 million Sudanese, over 20% of the population, have been displaced from their homes. The latest Sudan Mobility Overview compiled data from the past months gathered through the IOM's Displacement Tracking Matrix. An estimated 7,794,480 people have been internally displaced since the current Sudan conflict began in April 2023, while a further 2,238,671 have crossed borders into neighboring countries such as Chad, South Sudan and Egypt. Some half of the displaced are from the western region of Darfur.

Egyptian security forces have detained 119 people, including at least one child, since the start of the month for participating in anti-government protests, Amnesty International reported July 18. In recent weeks, frustrations over price hikes and power cuts have spurred demonstrations and calls for revolution against the government of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. The arrests have spanned six governorates, with some prominent activists being detained in raids on their homes. Several detainees are in the hands of the elite Supreme State Security Prosecution (SSSP), where they are being investigated on dubious charges that include "joining a terrorist group, publishing false news, and misuse of social media."

United Nations experts affiliated with the Human Rights Council declared July 9 that famine has now undoubtedly spread throughout the Gaza Strip. The expert determination follows the deaths of three more Palestinian children in May and June. Six-month-old Fayez Ataya, 13-year-old Abdulqader al-Serhi, and nine-year-old Ahmad Abu Reida were all found by the experts to have died from malnutrition. The experts stressed that inaction by the international community amounts to complicity, adding: "Israel's intentional and targeted starvation campaign against the Palestinian people is a form of genocidal violence and has resulted in famine across all of Gaza."

Amnesty International called Juy 5 for Houthi authorities in Yemen to immediately release detained staff from the UN and civil society organizations. Amnesty's call comes one month after the workers' arbitrary arrests and enforced disappearances following raids on homes and offices.

According to Amnesty, Houthi authorities have detained 13 UN staff and at least 14 staff from Yemeni and international aid organizations. Between May 31 and June 9, Houthi authorities conducted a series of nighttime raids on the detainees' homes and the offices of UN agencies and other local and international organizations in the cities of Sana'a, Hodiedah and Hajjah.

Kenyan President William Ruto has backtracked on a contentious tax-hiking finance bill, after street protests on June 25 left at least 13 people dead and 150 injured as police opened fire with live ammunition. The youth-led protests were triggered by a range of proposed new taxes that critics say will increase the financial burden on families already struggling with rising prices.

There is "credible" evidence that Ethiopian forces committed genocide during the two-year war in northern Tigray region, a new report has concluded. Ethiopia's National Defense Force and its allies—the paramilitary Amhara Special Forces and the Eritrean Defense Forces—are accused of committing "at least four acts" constituting genocide against Tigrayans, including: killing, causing serious bodily or mental harm, deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about their destruction, and imposing measures intended to prevent childbirth. The report by the New Lines Institute, a US-based foreign policy think-tank, called for Ethiopia to be referred to the UN's top court, the International Court of Justice.

Israeli forces have committed war crimes and violations of international humanitarian and human rights law, and there are "reasonable grounds" to conclude Hamas and loyalists have done the same, a UN inquiry concluded in a report released June 12. The report, which covers Hamas' Oct. 7 attacks on Israeli civilians and the initial phase of Israel's retaliatory invasion and bombardment of Gaza, was produced by the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, & Israel (Commission). The UN Human Rights Council established the Commission in 2021 to monitor human rights and humanitarian concerns in the region.