AMNESTY International says Lesotho must address police brutality, extrajudicial killings and torture ahead of the nation’s October 7 elections.

The organisation has collected evidence of many instances of torture at the hands of law enforcement and hopes candidates will make human rights a priority before and after the upcoming vote.

In January, the Lesotho Mounted Police Service (LMPS) arrested human rights lawyer, Advocate Napo Mafaesa on suspicions that he concealed a gun belonging to a client and tortured him for hours to extract a confession.

In May, police and members of the Lesotho Defence Force (LDF) beat and tortured 19 men and 16 women after they protested power cuts in Liseleng, Mokhotlong.

A single law firm in Maseru is currently handling 58 cases of police brutality dating as far back as 2018.

A 2021 United Nations report outlined key goals for Lesotho to reach by 2023, including that government entities would “uphold good Governance, rule of law and human rights” and all people would have “improved access to justice and participating in social and political decision making processes in a peaceful environment.”

According to Amnesty International, however, authorities have not reached this goal. Amnesty’s Director for East and Southern Africa, Muleya Mwananyanda described the climate, saying: “It is the duty of the police to protect the public, yet Lesotho’s track record of police brutality shows that the public have much to fear from their law enforcement officers.