Series of attacks against NGO MBAKITA and its members
On the night of 23 April 2020, unknown individuals forcibly entered the home of human rights defender Pascoal Baptistiny, director of the NGO MBAKITA. Three computers and other work materials were stolen from the home. Only days before, the organisation’s car had been vandalized over night. These are only the most recent incidents in a series of attacks against the organisation and its members.
MBAKITA - Missão de Beneficência Agropecuária do Kubango Inclusão Tecnologias e Ambiente (Mission of Beneficence Agriculture of Kubango Inclusive Technologies and Environment) is an NGO founded in 2002 and working for the protection of the rights of indigenous peoples and traditional communities in the southern provinces of Angola. The organisation denounces the lack of social and economic integration of indigenous communities such as the San, the expropriation of their lands and the discriminations they suffer.
On the night of 23 April 2020, unknown individuals forcibly entered the home of human rights defender Pascoal Baptistiny, director of the NGO MBAKITA. Three computers and other work materials were stolen from the home. Only days before, the organisation’s car had been vandalized over night. These are only the most recent incidents in a series of attacks against the organisation and its members.
Pascoal Baptistiny is the executive director of the NGO MBAKITA - Missão de Beneficência Agropecuária do Kubango Inclusão Tecnologias e Ambiente (Mission of Beneficence Agriculture of Kubango Inclusive Technologies and Environment), an NGO founded in 2002 which works to protect the rights of indigenous peoples and traditional communities in the southern provinces of Angola. It promotes the rights of these communities, denouncing the discriminations they suffer and the expropriation of their lands, while advocating for better social and economic integration, and respect of the rights to food, land and citizenship.
On 23 April, unknown individuals broke into Pascoal Baptistiny’s home, breaking eight outdoor spotlights and stealing three computers belonging to MBAKITA. The defender had brought them to his home as the MBAKITA office was closed due to COVID-19 restrictions, and the office had been broken into in 2018 and 2019 and computers and other IT material were stolen.
This is the second robbery of Pascoal Baptisnity’s home in two weeks. On 17 April 2020 at approximately 1:30am, three hooded men armed with guns broke into the defender’s house. They immobilized the two security guards and stole two laptops, a camera, memory cards and mobile phones. Pascoal Baptisnity’s wife and two children were sleeping in the home at the time but were not hurt. The previous day, on 16 April, the human rights defender received an anonymous message asking him to cease his work for indigenous communities, stating that his car was known and threatening to injure him. On the night of 16 April, the defender found that salt had been put in the radiator of the organizations car parked outside his home, which caused the car to break down.
Pascoal Baptisnity believes these attacks may be linked to the publication of a statement by an international organisation denouncing the physical assault and arbitrary detention of MBAKITA activists during COVID-19 prevention campaigns in Cuando Cubango province. On 9 April 2020, two MBAKITA activists were beaten with clubs by members of the security force on their way to the MBAKITA office to collect protective equipment to be distributed to communities in Menongue during COVID-19. On 2 April, nine members of MBATIKA who were conducting an awareness-raising campaign about COVID-19 were assaulted with baton sticks and threatened with guns by the police before being arrested and detained for eight hours. No known charges were brought against them. Since the arrest and subsequent release of these nine members, MBATIKA has been awaiting permission from the provincial authorities to continue the awareness campaign in indigenous communities. The authorities are yet to reply to MBAKITA’s formal request.
These recent incidents are not isolated, but rather reflect a systematic pattern of harassment and intimidation against MBAKITA members, who have been targeted several times in recent years. They and their families have been targeted with death threats and physical assaults, many of which have not been made public in order to ensure their safety and the safety of their families.
The work of human rights defenders, such as the work carried out by MBAKITA members, is of even greater importance in the context of COVID-19. They are working tirelessly with communities, complementing strategies adopted by local governments to combat the spread of the virus and helping to protect the health and lives of people in Angola.
Front Line Defenders is seriously concerned about the attacks against Pascoal Baptisnity and all members of MBAKITA. It believes that the lack of effective investigations into the attacks against them, the failure to sanction the perpetrators and provide adequate protection to human rights defenders generates a climate of impunity and discouragement to the legitimate and necessary work of human rights defenders in Angola.
