Togo: the Gnassingbe regime clamps down on opposition

a Togolese human rights activist sheds new light on how West Africa’s oldest autocracy uses modern surveillance techniques to further strengthen its control. A 2018 investigation by Citizen Lab, a cybersecurity research group based at the University of Toronto, uncovered the use of a spyware program known as Pegasus to attack the electronic devices of Togolese dissidents. Sold by the NSO Group, an Israeli company, to aid in the fight against terrorism and crime, it also enables authoritarian, poor human right record regimes to abuse its powers and oppress activists, journalists and other civil society leaders.

Read more on The New York Times

 

Update on Mali

Ecowas looks set to accept the Malian military leaders’ power transition proposals and ease economic sanctions.

Read more on Reuters

Should the coup in Mali make us fear a resurgence of coups in West Africa? Mohamed Tall argues that the way in which ECOWAS manages the current crises in the sub-region highlights the widening gap between Heads of State, who are percevied as part of an union, and the populations whose aspirations are not sufficiently taken into account by the same Heads of State.

Read more on WATHI