Expression
On 11th August, ten armed police officers raided the premises of L'Audace Info newspaper. The Media Foundation for West Africa reported that police were looking to serve a summons on its director of publications, Romuald Alingo. According to Mr. Alingo, police accused him of publishing defamatory articles about a group of universities known as CERCO and accused him of sharing the same information on social media platform, WhatsApp. Mr. Alingo was not on the agency's premises at the time of the raid and said in a statement that police officers should officially summons him rather than carrying out an office raid.
Peaceful Assembly
A number of peaceful protests in pursuit of a variety of causes took place in recent months in Benin:
- Candidates who succeeded the entry test into the education ministry staged a protest against its cancellation by the government of the newly elected president, Patrice Talon. There were no reports of violence during the protest.
- Beninese artists initiated a movement called 'Red Wednesday' to defend their interests against piracy. The movement organised a sit-in at the offices of the Ministry of Culture to protest against the government's decision to reduce the budget of the Beninese Help Fund for Culture (DFAC).
- Participants in the 2015 military service program organised a sit-in at various departments of the Ministry of Public Service to protest against the government’s failure to keep its promise to employ them following completion of their service.