Brasilia, Brazil – Thousands of indigenous people from across Brazil are gathering in the capital of Brasilia this week for the biggest indigenous protest in the country, the Free Land Camp.

More than 4,000 indigenous people from hundreds of tribes across the country are expected to camp out in front of government buildings for three days of native celebrations and protests against far-right President Jair Bolsonaro.

On Wednesday, indigenous communities began assembling hundreds of coloured tents just metres away from the National Congress.

“We have no way to fish, to [get] food, to bathe,” said Angoho Ha-ha-hae, the wife of the leader of the Pataxo tribe, whose water source was destroyed when a dam burst earlier this year. “We depend on the government, and where is it? We need help.”

The Articulation of the Indigenous People of Brazil (APIB), the main organisation behind the annual event, said this year’s protest is taking place in a “very grave context”.

“Since the government [of Bolsonaro] took office, several measures have been implemented that directly affect the rights of indigenous people,” says Luiz Eloy Terena, APIB’s legal counselor.

Terena told Al Jazeera some of these measures include the transfer of land demarcation and environmental licensing to the Ministry of Agriculture, and the extinction of the government offices responsible for the education and health of indigenous people. 

“The president’s statements defending mineral exploration in our lands … and this idea that native people should be integrated and assimilated,” he said. “This year’s Free Land Camp is happening because of all of those things”.

Joenia Wapichana, the first indigenous congresswoman in Brazil, said during her short time in office that “the government is not open” to the indigenous struggle.

“The government is completely anti-indigenous,” she told Al Jazeera. “[Jair Bolsonaro] is only open to those who defend mining and land grabbing, which is his intention.”

Joenia Wapichana, the first indigenous congresswoman in Brazil, poses with other members of the Wapichana tribe at the Free Land Camp in Brasilia [Mia Alberti/Al Jazeera]

APIB has documented a “series of attacks and invasions” of indigenous lands, as well as “persecution, racism and intolerance” shown toward native people since Bolsonaro took office at the beginning of the year. Several other indigenous organisations have also denounced land conflicts and a substantial increase in violence since January. Many believe the government’s relaxed stance on environmental issues is giving farmers and companies the green light to disrespect existing limitations, especially in the Amazon.

Bolsonaro has often said he is in favour of opening up the Amazon, the world’s largest forest, to foreign exploitation, especially by the United States. In a Facebook Live broadcast a week before the Free Land Camp, Bolsonaro said “the richness that exists [in the Amazon], should be explored rationally for the welbeing of our people and especially for the indigenous communities”. 

The Brazilian president also accused several NGOs of “enslaving” the indigenous, and said that he wanted “to free them”.

“We want the best for the Brazilian indians, human beings like any others, but this ‘party’ is not going to continue in our government”, he said in the video.

‘We are not violent’

Just a days after Bolsonaro’s statement, Minister of Justice Sergio Moro approved the deployment of special-forces police for this week’s event at the government’s request. In a statement, Moro said the national forces will be acting to “secure the public order and the safety of people and patrimony … and the defence of the Union [building] and the Ministries square in Brasília”, where the National Congress and the Supreme Court are located.

In a statement sent to Al Jazeera, the Ministry of Justice said the National Public Security Force will be used “if necessary” to ensure the “safety of the patrimony of the Union (ministries) and its servers”. 

Responding to Moro’s decision, APIB accused Bolsonaro’s government of wanting to “exterminate the indigenous peoples of Brazil” and not being available to “hear” and “help” them.

“Our camp has been happening peacefully for the past 15 years to give visibility to our daily struggles. (…) We are not violent, violence is attacking our sacred right to free protesting with armed forces,” the group said in a statement.

Thousands from the indigenous communities across Brazil are camping out in front of government buildings to demand more rights [Mia Alberti/Al Jazeera]

This week’s events will include a vigil in front of the Supreme Federal Court to demand more land demarcation. On Friday, the indigenous communities are expected to march towards the National Congress. In 2017, the march ended in clashes with police and an exchange of arrows and tear gas.

On Wednesday, Sonia Guajajara, the first woman to run for vice president in the country, told those at the event that “we will not surrender to unfair and fascist policies”. 

“We are not only fighting for our constitutional rights but our right to exist,” she said. 

The United Nations refugee agency evacuated 325 refugees from a detention centre on the southern outskirts of Tripoli amid escalating violence near the Libyan capital.

UNHCR said in a statement on Wednesday those rescued from the Qasr bin Ghashir centre were transported to another detention facility in Azzawya, northwestern Libya, where they were “at reduced risk of being caught up” in ongoing fighting between renegade military commander Khalifa Haftar’s eastern forces and troops loyal to the UN-recognised Government of National Accord (GNA).

The move was triggered by reports on Tuesday of the use of armed violence against detainees who were protesting against the conditions in which they were being held, UNHCR said, with 12 refugees requiring hospital treatment after being attacked.

Wednesday’s evacuation brings to 825 the number of refugees and migrants transferred further from clashes in four operations in the last two weeks, the agency added.

“The dangers for refugees and migrants in Tripoli have never been greater than they are at present,” said Matthew Brook, UNHCR’s deputy chief of mission in Libya.

We have evacuated 325 refugees from the Qaser Ben Gasheer detention centre in Tripoli.

It was triggered by reports of armed violence against detainees who were protesting the conditions at the centre. Gunshots were reported to have been fired in the air. https://t.co/WdZR2xL7aY pic.twitter.com/ucN4cHulQo

— UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency (@Refugees) April 24, 2019

About 3,000 refugees and migrants remain trapped in detention centres in Tripoli, according to the UN, and remain at risk from the “deteriorating security situation” around the capital. Many of the detainees fled war and persecution in their home countries.

Hundreds killed, thousands displaced

Tripoli’s southern outskirts have been engulfed by fighting since Haftar’s Libyan National Army (LNA) launched an offensive on April 4 aimed at wrestling control of the capital from the GNA, which is supported by an array of local militias.

The showdown threatens to further destabilise war-wracked Libya, which splintered into a patchwork of rival power bases following the NATO-backed overthrow of former leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 and has been split into rival eastern and western administrations since 2014.

Both the LNA and GNA have repeatedly carried out air raids against one another and accuse each other’s forces of targeting civilians.

At least 272 have been killed and more than 1,200 others wounded since the LNA started its offensive earlier this month, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

#Tripoli toll is now 272 dead, 1282 wounded & more than 30 000 displaced. WHO & partners are working to make sure primary health care facilities have supplies & resources to serve displaced families. @OCHA_Libya

— World Health Organization in Libya (@WHOLIBYA) April 23, 2019

At least 36,000 people have been forced to flee their homes because of the conflict, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) said on Wednesday.

UN conference cancelled

The violence has forced the UN to abandon its plans for a conference aimed at brokering an agreement to hold elections as part of a solution to Libya’s long-running political crisis.

The meeting was scheduled to bring Haftar and GNA Prime Minister Fayez al-Serraj together in the country’s southwestern town of Ghadames from April 14 to 16.

Haftar, who casts himself as a foe of “extremism” but is viewed by opponents as a new authoritarian leader in the mould of Gaddafi, has vowed to continue his offensive until Libya is “cleansed” of “terrorism”.

Al-Sarraj said last week the international community needs to be “united and firm” in supporting him, and warned some 800,000 migrants and refugees as well as Libyan nationals could flee across the Mediterranean to Europe’s shores if the instability in Libya continues.

The UN puts the number of people in Libya who have fled their homelands at more than 700,000.

Khartoum, Sudan – Abdirahman Moalim first came to the sit-in outside Sudan’s army headquarters in Khartoum to join thousands of his fellow countrymen in calling for Omar al-Bashir to step down as president.

But Moalim, a librarian by profession, saw he could do more.

“I saw most of the protesters were young. At the sit-in, they only had their phones and were reading from it. I then thought what if I bring them books so that they can read and protest at the same time,” Moalim, popularly known as Kabila, told Al Jazeera.

Kabila, who works at the Modern Kabo library in Khartoum, soon realised what books the protesters wanted to read.

“They mostly read books about politics and power. Almost no one reads fiction books,” the 35-year-old told Al Jazeera.

A librarian for more than 14 years, Kabila was surprised by the speed of change he is witnessing in his country. The protesters forced the military to remove al-Bashir as president on April 11.

“All my life I have only known one leader. A bad leader. From the books we read to our everyday life al-Bashir affected our lives in a bad way,” he added, as a group of young protesters sat nearby reading books.

Books about revolutions

Many books, especially those about the conflict in Darfur in the country’s west, and books about revolutions from across the world were hard, if not impossible, to find on the shelves of book stores in the Sudanese capital, according to Kabila.

“They were paranoid. They were scared of people finding out what is happening. They wanted to keep people in the dark,” he added as a large group of protesters chanted songs calling for the military to hand power over to a civilian authority.

The open-air library has no shelves or stands with books spread in straight lines on the tarmac [Hamza Mohamed/Al Jazeera]

The open-air library has no shelves or stands with books spread in straight lines on the tarmac. Protesters pick the book they fancy and read it while standing or walk over to the sand walk.

Others choose to squat. Arif Abdala just stumbled across the library a few hours ago and can’t get himself away from the books.

“It is my first time here and I like it a lot. So many good books to read. Many of them were not available before,” the 27-year-old primary school teacher told Al Jazeera.

“I don’t know how long I will be here. I have been here three hours now,” he added, reading former South African President Nelson Mandela‘s autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom.

Not all of the protesters who came to Kabila’s open-air library found it by accident while walking around the sit-in site.

Raising awareness through books

Rafaa Muhammad saw it on social media after some of her classmates shared photos of some of the books.

“I’m here with my friends and we can’t decide what books to read,” the 23-year-old university student said with a laugh.

“I will also share it on social media so that many young people know it and take advantage of it. It is really amazing,” she added.

Some protesters are buying the books and taking them home.

“I bought this book about the Darfur conflict. I have been looking for it for many years. I know Kabila from before so I told him ‘I was not leaving without the book’. I told him I need it for my home library,” Hassan Gasim told Al Jazeera.

“Books like this were extremely difficult to find before. We need them to understand our countries better. We have them now thanks Kabila,” he added.

To keep the protesters coming back and reading more books, Kabila changes the books on display every day.

The demand was so high that Kabila had to enlist two of his friends to volunteer for him.

“I like what he is doing. He is raising awareness and informing our people. That is why I came here to help him,” Alfadil Alkhidir, an electrical technician, said.

“Everyday after I finish work at 3pm I come here and help him until midnight,” he added.

For Kabila, raising awareness through books is what he always wanted to do.

“Our youth need to be informed and there is no better way than through books. I want to see change in our country and that can only happen if we are informed in a good way,” he said.

Follow Hamza Mohamed on Twitter: @Hamza_Africa

Demand was so high that Kabila had to enlist two of his friends to volunteer for him [Hamza Mohamed/Al Jazeera]

The UN human rights chief on Wednesday called Saudi Arabia’s mass executions of 37 men “shocking” and “abhorrent”, joining a growing chorus of condemnation by rights groups and activists. 

Saudi Arabia’s interior ministry said on Tuesday it beheaded dozens of its citizens over terrorism-related crimes, publicly pinning two of the bodies to a pole as a warning to others.

“I strongly condemn these shocking mass executions across six cities in Saudi Arabia yesterday,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said in a statement. 

“It is particularly abhorrent that at least three of those killed were minors at the time of their sentencing,” she added. 

The men had been convicted of charges including attacking security installations with explosives, killing a number of security officers, and cooperating with “enemy organisations” against the interests of the country.

Bachelet said the executions were carried out despite repeated warnings from rights officials and UN rapporteurs about lack of due process and fair trial guarantees amid allegations that confessions were obtained through torture.

The Chilean UN official urged Saudi Arabia to review its counterterrorism legislation, expressly prohibit the death penalty for minors, and halt pending executions including of three men on death row – Ali al-Nimr, Dawood al-Marhoon and Abdulla al-Zaher – whose cases she said had been taken up by the UN rights system.

Speaking to Al Jazeera from the Swiss city of Geneva, Ravina Shamdasani, spokeswoman for Bachelet, said the UN had “sought to take measures to prevent these executions from taking place in the first place”, and urged the Saudi authorities to not carry out the penalties, but “unfortunately, this was to no avail”. 

“We are now concerned because there are others who remain on death row and we are calling on the authorities to halt any imminent execution, to review the legislation relating to the death penalty, and in particular to outlaw the execution of those who are convicted as minors,” Shamdasani said. 

‘Sectarian decision’ 

Tuesday’s sentences were carried out in Riyadh, the Muslim holy cities of Mecca and Medina, central Qassim province, and Eastern Province, home to the country’s Shia minority.

Bachelet pointed out most of the 37 belonged to the Shia-Muslim minority and some had been involved in protests.

New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Wednesday at least 33 of the 37 men put to death were Shia and it was the largest set of executions in the kingdom since January 2016, when 47 people were killed. 

This is the largest mass executions of Shias in the history of Saudi Arabia since the 1900s

Ali al-Ahmed, director of the Institute for Gulf Affairs

Amnesty International also said late on Tuesday the majority of those executed in six cities belonged to the Shia minority and were convicted after “sham trials”, including at least 14 people who participated in anti-government protests in the kingdom’s oil-rich Eastern Province in 2011-2012.

Ali al-Ahmed, director of the Institute for Gulf Affairs, a US-based think-tank, said a few Sunnis were among those executed “so the list doesn’t look like a sectarian decision”, he told Al Jazeera from Washington, DC. 

“This is the largest mass executions of Shias in the history of Saudi Arabia since the 1900s,” al-Ahmed added. 

The Shia community in Saudi Arabia “will face greater challenges”, he warned. 

Prolific executor

Saudi Arabia is one of the world’s most prolific executor. 

Along with Iran, Vietnam and Iraq, the kingdom accounted for 78 percent of total reported executions last year, according to Amnesty’s annual report, published this month.

Amnesty said the kingdom has stepped up the rate of executions in 2019, with at least 104 people put to death since the start of the year compared with 149 for the whole of 2018.

Tuesday’s mass execution was “another gruesome indication of how the death penalty is being used as a political tool to crush dissent from within” the country’s Shia minority, said Lynn Maalouf, the group’s research director for the Middle East.

European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said the executions heightened doubts about respect for the right to a fair trial in Saudi Arabia and could generate sectarian violence.

“Mass executions are not the mark of a ‘reformist’ government, but rather one marked by capricious, autocratic rule,” HRW’s Middle East director Michael Page said.