Nduko o’Matigere, Head of Africa Region 

For a majority of sub-Saharan African countries, pressures and constraints on civic space were shaped by the omnipresence of authoritarian rule in a majority of nations and armed conflict in 14 states. In 2025, inhabitants of 44 out of 50 sub-Saharan African countries lived under civic space conditions assessed by CIVICUS as either ‘Closed’ (seven countries, namely Burundi, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Eswatini, Ethiopia and Sudan); ‘Repressed’ (22 countries); or ‘Obstructed’ (15 countries). Only two countries - Cape Verde and Sao Tome and Principe - were assessed as ‘Open’ while the civic space in Botswana, Mauritius, Namibia, and Seychelles was assessed as ‘Narrowed’. Despite the grim picture, PEN International celebrated positive developments in the situation of some writers in the region. 

A common feature among the countries where civic space is under significant pressure is that they are controlled by authoritarian governments that do not uphold international human rights standards. Many of these governments are in power through electoral processes that Africa Union observer missions and other independent groups declared to fall short of standards for free, fair and democratic elections, as in the case of Tanzania, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire and Guinea-Bissau;  or through military coups in the case of Burkina Faso, Niger, Mali, Chad, Sudan, Gabon, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, and Madagascar, and in extreme cases like Eritrea, where there has been single-party totalitarian rule since the country gained independence in 1991. For government authorities in power through illegitimate means, and for objectives other than democratic governance and protection of human rights, critical opinion and expression through literature, art, or traditional and digital media continued to be systematically dealt with as irritations and inconveniences to be crushed. For other countries, protracted armed conflict and war continued without an end in sight for resolution, often leaving civilians with restricted access to cultural life and opportunities, as well as limitations on their access to information.  

Repressive patterns observed in previous years, such as misuse of laws and the justice system against critics; politically motivated intimidation and violence targeting independent journalists; and weaponisation of technological infrastructure through unlawful digital surveillance, arbitrary internet shutdowns and network throttling persisted as the major strategies used by authorities to curtail free speech and legitimate civic engagement. As the trends in the persecution of writers highlighted in this Case List will attest, across sub-Saharan Africa, legitimate exercise of freedom of expression, in particular that which is critical of the powerful, remained a dangerous undertaking for writers, journalists, and civic commentators in general.  

Unresolved armed conflicts and war

Protracted wars and persistent armed conflicts across the region continued to make the exercise of freedom of expression dangerous, with press freedom constantly under attack and access to information severely hampered. The unresolved conflicts in Burkina Faso, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Ethiopia, Sudan, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria Somalia, and South Sudan madesub-Saharan Africa the region with the highest number of active armed conflicts globally in 2025 according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. What is common among countries in armed conflict is their poor rating in relation to civic space conditions. Across these countries, common conflict dynamics included political instability, democratic backsliding and the attendant abuse of power, conducted with impunity; violent competition for control of land and mineral resources featuring rivalries, often ethnic in nature, both within fundamentally artificial nation-states created by the 1884-1885 colonial partitioning of Africa and across their unnatural borders; the continued rise in the influence of Islamist insurgent groups; and the weakness of regional and international multilateral  peace and security mandates which limited their ability to effectively respond to the complexities involved.  As a result of these conflicts, the year closed with hundreds of millions of Africans facing acute human rights and humanitarian crises. One hundred and seventy million were facing dire food insecurity, including famine; 45.7 million were forcefully displaced; and hundreds of thousands of civilian were killed – with the UN declaring Sudan as the worst humanitarian crisis in the world. The latest report of the UN Independent Fact-Finding Mission for the Sudan concluded that mass killings and other atrocities committed by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) during its siege of El-Fasher for 18 months and eventual takeover in October 2025 pointed to a genocide targeting the Zaghawa and Fur communities. This finding replicates the repeated early warnings and appeals for action by Sudanese civil society and international human rights and humanitarian groups that went unheeded by regional and international peace and security mechanisms.  

Journalists reporting on some of these conflicts bore the brunt of repression, with journalists killed in Somalia and Sudan, jailed in Ethiopia and Niger, and subjected to harassment and intimidation all the countries facing armed conflict. In April, the Sudan Media Forum estimated that up to 90% of Sudanese media houses have been destroyed, including 27 newspapers that have been forced to stop operations. The number of journalists able to work has dropped from 1500 in the pre-war period to between 250 and 300 journalists, with only about 70 working in the country.  

Abuse of legal and justice systems to punish dissent 

Repressive governments continued to weaponise justice systems to supress free speech - including critical reporting on the conduct of powerful state and non-state actors - and the right to peaceful protest. Despite  the 2010 ACHPR resolution calling for the repeal of insult and criminal defamation laws by member states, countries like Angola, DRC, Nigeria, South Sudan, and Zambia still retain the laws while Kenya regressed from its positive trajectory. Provisions of Kenya’s Computer Misuse and Cybercrimes (Amendment Act 2024) criminalise ‘false information’ and ‘offensive or indecent posts’. On a positive note, these were a subject of litigation in 2025, with some sections suspended by the High Court of Kenya for violating constitutional provisions on free speech. Misuse of cybercrime laws to prosecute individuals for online expression continued in Nigeria and Uganda under provisions that punish vaguely defined offences like ‘online defamation’; ‘hate speech’; ‘insulting the president and officials on social media’, among others.  

The Committee to Protect Journalist’s latest report on imprisoned journalists, 42 journalists were imprisoned because of their work across Africa at the end of the year, with Eritrea accounting for 16 who have been arbitrarily detained without trial and held incommunicado since September 2001. Ethiopia, Niger and Rwanda were incarcerating five journalists each; Cameroon four and Senegal two. With the exception of the Eritrean writers, the rest of the journalists highlighted - and hundreds of others in at least 44 countries who suffered non-custodial judicial harassment - were arrested and prosecuted on ambiguously worded offences. This trend, as highlighted in previous Case Lists, has become all too common, through national laws tailored to repress press freedom, including under vague and overbroad legislation covering public order, and security offences, including anti-terrorism laws and provisions prohibiting ‘undermining the authorities’, as well as insult and defamation, misuse of computer and electronic equipment, harassment by electronic means, and ‘spreading false news’, among others.  

Brutal suppression of peaceful protests, often in the pretext of public security, maintained its place in the authoritarian repression playbook across the region. In Tanzania, a brutal crackdown in which security forces used unlawful lethal force against protesters following the disputed 29 October general election, leading to the killing or serious injury of hundreds, if not thousands of people. Thousands were arrested and prosecuted on trumped up charges under Tanzania’s anti-terrorism and treason laws, while there were reports of enforced disappearances. Earlier, in June, Kenya brutally clamped down on commemoration protests called in honour of victims of police brutality during the 25 June 2024 Gen Z-led protests, resulting in at least 10 fatalities and more than 400 injuries, including from gunshot wounds, according to the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNHCR). Cameroon,  Madagascar and Togo  also responded with unlawful lethal force to peaceful protests about poor public service delivery and concerns about management of elections.  

Intimidation and lethal violence

According to the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), at least eight journalists were killed in Africa in relation to their work, with Sudan accounting for four of those killed, and Mozambique, Somalia, Tanzania and Zimbabwe one each. Journalists across the continent were also targeted and violently assaulted by state security forces across the region, with an overall trend of impunity for perpetrators. The highest number of incidents were documented in DRC, Ghana,Kenya, Nigeria,Somalia, as well asUganda - where both security forces and state-sanctioned civilian actors were involved.   

In Mali, although author, academic, activist, and publisher Professor Étienne Fakaba Sissoko - featured in the 2025 Case List, was released from prison on 27 March 2025 after serving a one-year prison sentence, new threats to his safety and liberty forced him into exile in September.   

Weaponisation of digital infrastructure 

Internet shutdowns and restrictions of social media as tools to restrict information flow and restrict freedom expression surged in the region with Surfshark monitoring and documenting total shutdowns, throttling or restriction in Sudan (throughout the year); CameroonEquatorial Guinea (Annobon Island), Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, and Tanzania (5 days); DRC (3 days); Togo (2 days);  and South Sudan and Kenya (1 day),  Elections, protests, military coups, and conflict were the main contexts in which internet shutdowns and restrictions of mobile telecommunication services were implemented by authorities. A 2025 Amnesty International report concluded that on top of effecting an internet shutdown during protests in June and July 2024, authorities in Kenya adopted technology-facilitated violence to suppress Gen Z-led protests against government corruption, state violence and impunity – a trend that continued into 2025. Through use of state-sponsored trolls, the state deployed viral disinformation and hate campaigns, online harassment and discrediting of perceived protest organisers, and issuing death threats.  

Artistic expression - through song, digital tools, graffiti, and performance - was massively used to articulate the governance and public accountability concerns driving the Gen Z protests, particularly in the Kenya protests of 2024 and 2025. In the context of state clampdowns on protest, creators and users of protest art were targeted for repression alongside individuals perceived to be the leaders of the protests. In November during the post-election crackdown on protestors, Tanzaniaarrested and prosecuted a popular Tik-Toker on tramped-up charges of treason and ‘destruction of infrastructure’ after she posted herself performing a viral Tik-Tok dance challenge that satirizes a speech made by the president. The charges were dropped a month later.  

Challenging the violations 

PEN International continued to provide material and advisory support to writers and journalists at risk of persecution from state authorities because of their written work (Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Eritrea and Guinea); or facing disruptions to their livelihoods and safety as a result of armed conflict, war and displacement in Sudan; and in Nigeria, writers at risk from community pressure because of their non-binary gender identities.  

On the horrific crisis in Sudan, in April, PEN International joined voices with Sudanese-led international coalitions in public statements warning of the genocidal intent of the RSF and calling for urgent international action to end the atrocities in Darfur. In September, the organisation also joined calls for action by the Sudanese Telecommunications and Post Regulatory Authority to end the suspension of WhatsApp voice and video calls. On 1 October, PEN International joined a statement appealing for safe passage and protection for civilians under siege in El Fasher, yet another atrocity that went unheeded by the international community.    

Good News

Writer Alex Barga (see below), who had been detained facing trumped up charges since 12 January, was acquitted of all charges and unconditionally freed by a Mozambique court in September. In Malawi, the Constitutional Court ruled the country’s criminal defamation laws to be unconstitutional and, with orders that no further criminal defamation prosecutions should be brought before court.  

In a glimmer of cautious hope, in December, Eritreareleased 13 individuals who had been held in arbitrary detention for over 18 years. The UN made a new call on the authorities to release all individuals still held arbitrarily across the country, including the group of over 12 writers and journalists imprisoned without trial since 2001.