Cameroon’s leading opposition politician, Anicet Ekane, has died at the age of 74 after weeks of detention, according to reports from his lawyers and family on Monday. They stated that he struggled to breathe and did not receive adequate medical care while in custody. Ekane was arrested in late October along with other prominent members […]
Cameroon: Opposition Politician Dies While in Detention Read More »
By Chernoh Alpha M. Bah It has been ten years since the end of West Africa’s Ebola outbreak, a monumental health tragedy that claimed the lives of thousands of innocent people in the region. However, a decade later, questions surrounding the outbreak’s origin and the institutions and individuals who failed to mitigate its devastating impact
By Chernoh Alpha M. Bah, Matthew Anderson, and Mark Feldman A recent investigation by the Africanist Press has uncovered evidence indicating that between April 2021 and September 2024, the Maada Bio administration engaged multiple foreign consultants to bolster its repression and propaganda initiatives. This campaign, which has been underway since at least April 2021, involves
By Chernoh Alpha M. Bah, Matthew Anderson, and Mark Feldman Documents obtained by Africanist Press, including financial transactions, emails, and records of foreign agent registrations in the United States, reveal how the Maada Bio regime continues to depend on foreign cyber intelligence and communication agents, particularly from Nigeria and the United States, to facilitate both
Sierra Leone: President Hires Foreign Agents for Transnational Propaganda and Repression Read More »
By Chernoh Alpha M. Bah If you are a Sierra Leonean living in the United Kingdom, you may be using Octopus Energy for your electricity or energy services. However, you might not be aware that this British energy company is taking control of Sherbro Island and transforming it into an autonomous economic zone governed by
The Global Energy Network and the Future of Democracy in Sierra Leone Read More »
By Chernoh Alpha M. Bah In July 2021, the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) announced the disbursement of a $217 million loan to the Maada Bio administration through Milele Energy and TCQ Power. This funding was intended to facilitate the construction of a new power plant in Freetown, with the goal of addressing the
By Chernoh Alpha M. Bah Two weeks ago, my colleagues and I left the United States to embark on a solidarity tour in Europe and Africa, meeting with human rights organizations and policy leaders to brief them on fundamental rights in Sierra Leone. As you already know, for six years now, my colleagues and I
From Boston to Berlin: We Deliver a Message of Solidarity! Read More »
The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on authorities in Guinea-Bissau to rescind an August 15 order effectively suspending the work of the Portuguese state-owned news outlets LUSA and RTP and expelling Portuguese journalists working with them. Authorities ordered the immediate and indefinite closure of the LUSA and RTP offices and the discontinuation of local broadcasts of RTP,
Guinea-Bissau shuts down two Portuguese media outlets, expels their journalists Read More »
By Chernoh Alpha M. Bah Two years after the pivotal elections of June 2023, which saw the incumbent Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP) candidate, Julius Maada Bio, secure a second term in office despite the lack of a legitimate electoral result, Dubawa—a Nigerian-run project that claims to focus on fact-checking journalism— has published what appears
By Chernoh Alpha M. Bah and Matthew Anderson Records from a meeting held in early June 2012 in Sierra Leone between officials from the Ernest Bai Koroma administration and a delegation from the European Commission and the United Nations reveal the existence of a global energy network that initiated efforts to support Kandeh Yumkella’s political
