full scale of the practice of ED in Africa. In particular, the WGEID noted as far back as 2005 that: Underreporting and lack of official data The use of ED has been a widespread problem on the continent since colonial times and continues to be prevalent today. The full extent to which this practice takes place is difficult to assess since governments often deny existing and past instances of ED, which has caused a lack of official data and significant underreporting and recording of the crime. Furthermore, the ICPPED does not require States to publish data on the numbers of ED within their borders (and in any event, the ratification of the ICPPED amongst African States has been patchy, as discussed in section 6 below14). “The Working Group remains concerned that while Africa has been racked by armed conflicts over the last decade, at the same time it is the region with the fewest reported cases of enforced or involuntary disappearances. The Working Group suspects that it is dealing with an underreported phenomenon of disappearances. Underreporting was also noted this year in the Working Group’s country visit report on Colombia and it certainly exists in other countries, but the African case is particularly dramatic. The unfolding humanitarian disaster in Darfur, Sudan, is a striking, but not unique, example of this phenomenon.”19 The WGEID has noted that factors contributing to underreporting include a fear of reprisals, weak administration of justice, ineffectual reporting channels, institutionalised systems of impunity, poverty, illiteracy, language barriers, a practice of silence and restrictions on the work of civil society.15 The remainder of this sub-section briefly surveys the data that is currently available, and the subsequent sub-sections describe the factors enabling and contributing to the prevalence of the crime in Africa. African Commission In 2018, the African Commission adopted a resolution to expand the mandate of the Working Group on Arbitrary Killings to include ED and in particular to include collecting information and keeping a database of reported instances of ED in Africa.20 It is hoped that by fulfilling this mandate, the African Commission’s database will assist with raising awareness of the prevalence of ED in Africa, particularly given that the African Working Group has recently acknowledged that underreporting is an issue.21 UN data The WGEID 2020 report noted a total 46,271 cases of ED which were under active consideration, of which around 4,783 (10.3%) occurred in African countries.16 Most of the outstanding cases on the continent derive from Algeria (3,253), Egypt (308), Burundi (238) Sudan (177), Morocco (153), and Ethiopia (113).17 The table below sets out the number of cases of ED in Africa under consideration as outlined in the WGEID 2020 report.18 Civil society The concern about underreporting is borne out by the reports of various civil society organisations in the region. For instance: • The estimated number of individuals who were disappeared during Algeria’s lengthy civil war varies between organisations and has never been confirmed by an independent authority.22 While these numbers provide a reliable account of cases reported to the WGEID, they fail to reflect the 14 As at the time of writing, only 17 African States have ratified the ICPPED, namely: Benin, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Gabon, Gambia, Lesotho, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Seychelles, Togo, Tunisia and Zambia. In addition, 17 African States have signed but not yet ratified it, namely: Algeria, Angola, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Chad, Comoros, Congo, Eswatini, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, Uganda and United Republic of Tanzania; United Nations Treaty Collection, 16: International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, 20 December 2006, New York. 15 WGEID, A/HRC, 30/38, dated 10 August 2015, page 20. 16 HRC, Report of the WGEID, A/HRC/45/13, 7 August 2020, Annex II. 17 Ibid. 18 Ibid. 19 HRC, Civil and Political Rights, including the questions of disappearances and summary executions (E/CN.4/2006/56), 23 February 2006, para. 593. 20 ACHPR/Res. 408 (LXII) 2018, Resolution on the expansion of the mandate and composition of the Working Group on Death Penalty and Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Killings in Africa to include enforced disappearances. 21 ACHPR/Res. 448 (LXVI) 2020, Resolution on the Drafting of Guidelines for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances in Africa, preamble. 22 Various figures, ranging from 7,000 to 20,000 have been put forward as the total number of disappeared persons (see for example International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP), Algeria, 9 November 2014; Algeria Watch, Information sur la situation des droits humains en Algérie, June 2012; Justice and Reconciliation Project, The Right to Know, 13 August 2015). 15