Hugues Sossoukpè case: RSF files a complaint against Benin and RCI

In a publication on its website, the international organization defending press freedom denounces serious violations of fundamental rights and calls for redress for the harm suffered by the two journalists.

According to Sadibou Marong, head of RSF’s Sub-Saharan Africa desk, Hugues Comlan Sossoukpè was the victim of an abduction, detention and a forced transfer carried out outside any legal framework, followed by an arbitrary arrest. These acts the organization calls illegal and contrary to the international commitments of the states involved.

Founder of the Olofofo media and political refugee in Togo since 2021, Hugues Comlan Sossoukpè was arrested in July 2025 in Abidjan, while he was covering an event at the invitation of the Ivorian Ministry of Digital Transition and Digitalization.

RSF states that this operation, involving Beninese officials with the complicity of Ivorian authorities, led to his exfiltration by private plane to Cotonou. The organization calls it a state affair disguised as judicial cooperation, marked by numerous irregularities reported at the highest level of the Ivorian state.

Since his incarceration, the journalist is said to have been held under particularly harsh conditions, subjected to strict isolation for seven months. Visits from his relatives have only been allowed since the beginning of 2026.

He is charged with harassment via an electronic system, rebellion and terrorism propaganda.
RSF notes that this case is not an isolated one. In November 2025, the organization revealed the arrest of Ali Moumouni, former journalist with the private Canal 3 group, arrested on July 16, 2025 in Cotonou during a training session at a school.

Held at Cotonou’s civil prison, Ali Moumouni has access to his lawyer and limited family visits. His first hearing, interrupted for health reasons, took place on March 25, 2026, more than eight months after his incarceration. The substantive interrogation resumed in mid-April.

In light of these cases, RSF believes that the two journalists are unjustifiably deprived of their liberty and calls on the Beninese authorities to respect judicial guarantees and international commitments on press freedom and human rights.

RSF’s complaint against the two countries.

The ECOWAS Court of Justice is now expected to rule on the case involving Hugues Comlan Sossoukpè and Ali Moumouni. On April 24, Reporters Without Borders submitted to the community court through its lawyer, Koffi Sylvain Mensah Attoh, to denounce serious failings that led to the incarceration of the two journalists.

In its petition, RSF contends that Ivory Coast violated international law on refugee protection, as well as press freedom and the public’s fundamental right to information.

The organization reproaches the Ivorian authorities for handing over, outside any legal framework, Hugues Comlan Sossoukpè, refugee in Togo since 2021, to Benin authorities on July 10, 2025.

According to the investigation conducted by RSF, this operation would have been ordered by the Beninese state, identified by the organization as the principal instigator of the abduction. RSF considers that Benin has been guilty of the same violations, in addition to the arbitrary detention of the two journalists.

Through this filing, RSF aims to have the infringements of fundamental rights recognized and to obtain, at the end of the procedure, the release of the individuals and redress for the damages suffered.