DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — Rights lawyers filed a case against Equatorial Guinea before Africa’s top human rights body Friday, accusing the central African nation of forcing deportees from the United States back to their home countries in violation of their rights.The filing asks the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the main human rights body of the African Union, to order Equatorial Guinea to immediately halt any further deportations, transfers or removals and improve detention conditions. It also asks the body to grant compensation to people who already have been returned to their home countries.The case is being brought by several rights groups, including the Global Strategic Litigation Council coalition, on behalf of 14 African migrants deported from the U.S. to Equatorial Guinea between November 2025 and April 2026.
Advocates call it a landmark caseThe African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights can issue decisions and urgent measures, as well as refer cases to the Africa Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights but these orders are not binding. Nonetheless, advocates say this is a landmark case that could exercise pressure on governments of African countries who have taken in deportees from the U.S.It is the first of its kind in the region involving people who had legal protection from removal but were still sent to countries where they face persecution, said Beatrice Njeri, the Global Strategic Litigation Council’s regional litigator for Africa.In March, the commission had already allowed a suit challenging the unlawful and prolonged detention of third country deportees in the African kingdom of Eswatini to proceed.
