COVID-19 and Political Repression

The chapter examines the key features of growing authoritarianism and democratic regression at a global level over the last two decades. The opportunities presented by the COVID-19 pandemic to authoritarian governments to silence dissent, and entrench their hold on power, are analysed, with attention drawn to similarities in the methods employed. In the cases of Ethiopia, Uganda and Rwanda (the focus of this study), during the pandemic their ruling parties resorted to increasingly repressive and violent methods to deal with political opposition, which included the pursuit by Uganda and Rwanda of highly destructive interventions in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo and the launching of a war in Tigray by the Ethiopian government. Such conduct led to Western expressions of opprobrium and threats to withhold critical development assistance. The new Biden administration declared democracy promotion would once again figure prominently as an objective in Washington’s foreign policy and in decisions on aid allocations. The absence of the leaders of these three countries at a Washington summit on democracy in 2021 is highlighted, as are their reactions to their apparent fall from grace in Western eyes.