Across West Africa, journalists, media outlets, and activists continue to face repression, with governments and powerful actors using arrests, intimidation, and censorship to stifle dissent. The region’s civic space is shrinking, and freedom of expression (FOE) remains under threat, exacerbated by a climate of impunity that emboldens perpetrators. With support from the 11th Hour Project of The Schmidt Family Foundation, MFWA continues to monitor and document these violations to advocate for a free and open civic space in the region.
The findings from the MFWA’s July 2024 monitoring across West Africa revealed a number of violations, including arrests and detention, harassment and intimidation, abduction and forced disappearance, and network disruption. Most of the violations targeted journalists; no activist or human rights defender was attacked during the monitoring period. In Niger and Guinea-Bissau, two journalists were arrested and detained, while two incidents of harassment and intimidation were recorded in Sierra Leone and Nigeria. Burkina Faso witnessed yet another abduction, bringing the total number of kidnapped journalists in the country to four. Additionally, Mauritania’s government ordered an internet shutdown, in a bid to stifle massive protests across the country over the results of the presidential election held on June 29, 2024
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