Mabamba Bay, on Lake Victoria, is a globally recognised Important Bird Area, in which shoebills, along with blue swallows and papyrus gonoleks, are protected.

The two will not attend the hearings, as they left Gabon in May, when newly-elected former junta leader President Brice Clothaire Oligui Nguema agreed to let them leave, on the condition they keep a low profile.

Kiir has replaced central bank governors at least FIVE TIMES since January 2017. In recent years, he has replaced Army chiefs SIX TIMES. And this is only half of the story.

•Mali (Sahel region): Journalists killed, injured or kidnapped by armed groups in increasingly unstable zones.
•Cameroon: Investigative journalists kidnapped and found dead; detention, torture and impunity prevalent.

•Ethiopia: Arrests, detentions, complex “terrorism” or security-law charges used against journalists; kidnapping in conflict regions.

•DR Congo (east): Journalist Fiston Wilondja was kidnapped, tortured, strangled and killed on 5 August 2024 (found with cable around his neck).
•Sudan: Killings, disappearances and exile of journalists; arrests under war-zone conditions, no safe zones for press.

•Burkina Faso: Investigative journalist Serge Oulon vanished on 24 June 2024 after armed men stormed his home.
•Guinea: Journalist Habib Marouane Camara (36) was pulled from his car and arrested by gendarmes in Conakry on 3 Dec, 2024; still missing.