September 2024 in Africa: A free expression and civic space round-up produced by IFEX's Regional Editor Reyhana Masters, based on IFEX member reports and news from the region.
Honouring a journalist
Samira Sabou – prominent investigative journalist and president of Niger’s bloggers’ association – is no stranger to arrests, assaults, death threats, and protracted legal onslaughts. This year she is one of four women journalists who will be honoured by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) with a 2024 International Press Freedom Award.
Sabou has been arrested multiple times, with the most serious case dating back to 10 June 2020 following a defamation complaint by Sani Mahamadou Issoufou, the son of Niger’s president, who also held the position of deputy chief of staff in the country at the time. Her arrest came soon after she published a Facebook post about embezzlement in the Ministry of Defence. Although she did not name anyone in the post, she was charged with “defamation by means of electronic communication”, not only for her post but also for a comment made on the post by an individual.
The most recent incident against Sabou took place in October 2023, when she was picked up from her home by men in plain clothes. Ensuing pressure from human rights organisations pushing for her whereabouts may have prompted the judicial police – who had initially denied any involvement – to notify Sabou’s lawyer that she was in their custody. She was eventually released on 11 October.
In the face of threats like these, Sabou explains that her strength comes from being aligned with her conscience.
“Sometimes we avoid doing certain analyses to not attract the malice of certain social media players. At times we feel like giving up. But the desire to bring out the truth, to improve and correct certain malfunctions, is stronger, even if this means we expose ourselves to big risks.”
Cameroon’s judicial harassment of journalists, activists, and influencers
Cameroon took a further blow to its already battered media freedom reputation with the imposition of hefty sentences on two journalists over the last two months.
On 28 August, Amadou Vamoulké, the former managing director of the state-owned Cameroon Radio and Television (CRTV), received an additional 20-year sentence for embezzlement of public funds by the Special Criminal Court in Yaoundé. This sentence, combined with his previous conviction in December 2022 when he was sentenced to 12 years in prison and fined 47 million FCFA (approximately US$76,000), now amounts to 32 years.
His long and arduous legal battle dates back to when he “was arrested in 2016 for alleged embezzlement and appeared in court more than 140 times before being sentenced to 12 years in prison in 2022.”
Colleagues and friends vouching for his integrity believe his persecution may be related to his independence of as head of CRTV.
In an opinion piece in Journal du Cameroun.com, Cameroonian lawyer Akere Muna, who is also a member of the African Union High Level Panel on Illicit Financial Flows from Africa, said: “This case remains a mystery to me. He was initially accused of embezzling 16 billion CFA francs, which astonishingly shrank to just 2 billion in the judgment. This amount actually represents unpaid debts owed to CRTV, dating back to his predecessor! The company’s accountant, following standard practice, classified these unpaid invoices as bad debts – nothing to do with Vamoulke!” “I know Amadou personally; when he joined CRTV he cut his own salary and benefits and drastically reduced handouts to board members. His former colleague, Alain Massé, head of RFI, referred to him as “Mr Clean of Public Media,” noting how he opted for 2-star hotels while others stayed in luxury accommodations,” he explained.
Over the last few months, Cameroonian authorities have tightened their grip even further on media, critics and commentators who focus on the Anglophone crisis.
Less than a month after Vamoulké’s second sentencing, freelance reporter Kingsley Fumunyuy Njoka, was sentenced to ten years in prison by Yaoundé’s military court for “secession and complicity with armed gangs”. His arrest can be linked to his critical reporting on the authorities’ handling of the armed conflict in the English-speaking zones in the northwest part of the country.
In July, a social media activist and influencer Steve Akam (also known as Ramon Cotta) who was living in Gabon at the time, was forcibly disappeared. According to a Human Rights Watch report. “Cotta’s lawyers said the Gabonese police arrested their client in Libreville, Gabon’s capital, on July 19 … and held him incommunicado in an unidentified location until July 21, when they handed him over to the Cameroonian authorities.” He was eventually located in August, at the military court in Yaoundé, where he was charged with “acts of terrorism, insurrection, financing terrorism, arms trafficking and insulting the President and members of the government.”
Junior Ngombe, a 23-year-old hairdresser and activist, was arbitrarily detained for a week in July after criticising Ramon Cotta’s arrest in a video that was viewed more than 218,000 times on TikTok.
A decree was issued in July, followed closely by a press release from the communication minister, René Emmanuel Sadi, declaring that “it is unacceptable for compatriots […] to use irreverent language” about the president Paul Biya, “who was freely and overwhelmingly elected by his fellow citizens.”
These punitive sentences, forced disappearances and decree form the backdrop to the deepening constriction of Cameroon’s civic space, as the country heads for elections, which were initially scheduled for early 2025. This changed on 9 July when Biya successfully secured the backing of parliament, allowing him to postpone the country’s parliamentary and municipal elections until 2026.
The Gambia retreats on its human rights commitments
On the day that the editors of The Voice – Musa Sheriff Hydara and Momodou Justice Darboe – were arrested, President Adama Barrow was addressing the United Nations General Assembly in New York, declaring his appreciation for The Gambia being “recognised as one of Africa’s leading defenders of freedom of expression and ranked third in Article 19’s Global Expression Report 2024.”
Hydara and Darboe were detained and interrogated for their story alleging Barrow had selected a successor as part of his exit strategy.
Condemning the harassment of the two journalists, the Gambia Press Union (GPU) pointed out how the actions of the president and the police were reminiscent of the intimidatory tactics used by the regime of former president Yahya Jammeh. The GPU president, Muhammed Bah, urged Barrow and the Inspector General of Police “to reflect on these human rights guarantees under the constitution, and the country’s transitional justice objectives, which aim at, among other things, ending attacks on freedom of the press and the media.”
Tanzania’s electoral landscape goes back to default setting
As Tanzania heads towards elections in 2025, President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s visible attempts to reverse the former president’s repressive rule with her 4R policy (which emphasises “reconciliation, resilience, reform, and rebuilding”) may have suffered a setback following the murder of opposition politician Ali Mohamed Kibao.
According to reports, Kibao – a national secretariat member of Tanzania’s main opposition party Chama Cha Demokrasia na Maendeleo (Chadema) – was forcibly taken off a bus as he travelled from Dar es Salaam to the northern port city of Tanga. When he was found a day later, it was evident that he had been beaten and tortured, and acid had been poured on his face.
President Suluhu Hassan’s response was swift and, on the surface, reassuring: “I have ordered the investigation agencies to bring me detailed information about this terrible incident and others like it as soon as possible,” she wrote online. “Our country is democratic and every citizen has the right to live. The government I lead does not tolerate such brutal acts.”
However, her ensuing remarks during the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the Tanzania Police were at odds with her earlier conciliatory message. After pointing out her government’s efforts to reinstate the freedoms of political parties, media, and citizens overall, she then issued a warning. “Now, when those same people forget all this and engage in actions or statements that harm or set us back, we will not be willing to allow it, we will not allow it. We will protect the peace and stability of our country at any cost.”
Two weeks later, Chadema chairperson Freeman Mbowe, his deputy Tundu Lissu, and several other party members were arbitrarily and temporarily arrested just hours before a planned protest. Chadema had organised the rally to protest the government’s alleged inaction in relation to the abduction of at least five individuals linked to their party. According to HRW: “Those disappeared are Dioniz Kipanya, a Chadema party official who went missing in July, and Deusdedith Soka, Jacob Godwin Mlay, and Frank Mbise, whom unidentified men reportedly abducted on August 18. The whereabouts of all four remain unknown.”
IFEX members mark International Day for Universal Access to Information
The Africa Freedom of Information Centre held a series of events aimed at raising awareness of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) recommendations in relation to accessing information. This included a symposium discussing legal amendments as well as Uganda’s implementation of the Access to Information Act.
Cameroonian civil society organisation ADISI-Cameroun arranged a capacity-building workshop for communication managers, local councillors and youth groups, which focused on enhancing and managing websites and social media platforms to better engage with citizens, promote open data, and ensure accountability in governance.
South Sudan’s Association for Media Development in Southern Sudan (AMDISS) held discussions with government stakeholders, journalists and civil society organisations, to discuss how access to information plays a critical role in government accountability.
The Media Foundation for West Africa took an in-depth look at the impediments to public held information by citizens in Ghana and Nigeria. In examining ATI laws for public institutions to proactively provide information, the MFWA points out how citizens are obstructed by the “number of public institutions across West Africa [which] have failed to transform their massive printed data into digital formats, making it laborious for them to locate and provide certain statistical data.”
In brief
The International Press Institute highlighted the numerous cases of unsolved murders of Somalian journalists and urged the government “to uphold press freedom and ensure the safety of journalists by investigating crimes against them and prosecuting those responsible.”
Two bills signed into law over the last few months by Angolan President João Lourenco will severely restrict freedoms of the media, expression, and association. The Bill on the Crimes of Vandalism of Public Goods and Services provides prison terms of up to 25 years for people who participate in protests that result in vandalism and service disruptions, while the National Security Bill allows for excessive government control over media, civil society organizations, and other private institutions.
Illegal mining in Ghana is known locally as Galamsey. The #StopGalamseyNow movement – initially created to protest illegal mining in Ghana – has morphed into the #FreetheCitizens movement, which is now advocating for the release of approximately 54 protesters who were detained by the Ghana Police Service on 22 and 23 September. The hashtag #FreetheCitizens is now trending on social media and in turn driving a national dialogue on the right to protest and the government’s passive stance on combating illegal mining.
