Beninese journalist’s detention: result of ‘aggressive transnational tactics’
The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on the Beninese authorities to release Comlan Hugues Sossoukpè, Publishing Director of the banned online Beninese weekly newspaper, Olofofo Info, following his arrest in Côte d’Ivoire on 10 July. He was then extradited to Benin, despite his refugee status in Togo.
‘The forcible transfer of journalist Comlan Hugues Sossoukpè by Côte d’Ivoire to Benin, despite his refugee status in Togo, sends a worrying message to journalists across the region,’ said Moussa Ngom, CPJ’s Francophone Africa representative. ‘He must be released immediately and unconditionally. Such aggressive, transnational tactics illustrate a cross-border collaboration to muzzle a critical journalist.’
On 14 July 2025, a judge at Benin’s Court for the Repression of Economic Offences and Terrorism (CRIET) upheld Sossoukpè’s detention in the southern city of Ouidah, pending a judicial investigation on charges of inciting rebellion, inciting hatred and violence, harassing through electronic communication, and apology for terrorism, according to a copy of the decision seen by CPJ.
Sossoukpè was in Côte d’Ivoire to cover a government conference when he was arrested. He has been living in Togo since 2019 and has held refugee status there since receiving threats in Benin, where he is from, related to his work.
Sossoukpè told Maximin Pognon, his lawyer, who spoke to CPJ, that four people identifying themselves as Ivorian law enforcement officers and a fifth as a ‘colonel of the gendarmerie’ asked him to respond to a summons. But Sossoukpè recognised two of them as Beninese police officers, Pognon said.
Sossoukpè said he demanded that they bring him before a judge, which they agreed to, but did not. Instead, they seized his phone and computer, took him briefly to an Ivorian law enforcement headquarters, and then escorted him aboard a plane that took him to Benin
Two people close to the case who asked not to be named for privacy reasons said that during the days before his arrest, Sossoukpè had alerted his friends that there were kidnapping plans against him.
CPJ’s calls and WhatsApp messages to Andy Kouassi, Public Relations Director of the Ivorian Ministry of Communication, and to Wilfried Léandre Houngbédji, Spokesperson for the Beninese government, as well as CPJ’s email to the Ivorian gendarmerie, went unanswered.
COMMITTEE TO PROTECT JOURNALISTS
PICTURE: Comlan Hugues Sossoukpè was in Côte d’Ivoire to cover a government conference when he was arrested (CPJ)
This article was first published here
