Freedom of expression remains under persistent threat across West Africa, as governments and security institutions continue to employ legal, administrative, and coercive tactics to silence dissenting voices.
During September 2025, the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) recorded several incidents of arrests, detentions, censorship, and intimidation targeting journalists, activists, and citizens. The cases, drawn from MFWA’s monitoring network and verified reports, reflect a pattern of repression across both democracies and military-led regimes.
The incidents reveal a troubling regional trend of the weaponisation of cybercrime and defamation laws, incidents of restrictions on protests, physical attacks on journalists, and the abduction of a dissenting journalist’s father.
MFWA’s September monitoring, supported by the 11th Hour Project of The Schmidt Family Foundation, covered all sixteen West African countries, documenting violations recorded in nine (9) of them.
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