Photo credit: Africanist Press
On July 23, 2024, Endangered Scholars Worldwide (ESW) learned that Chernoh Alpha M. Bah, a Sierra Leonean academic currently located in the United States, has been facing a series of threats and attacks as retribution for his academic and journalistic research on Sierra Leone. Due to a series of threats and attacks towards his person and the news platform Africanist Press, of which he is the editor-in-chief, Dr. Bah is barred from returning to his country or other countries in the West African region in fear of retribution. This marks a major violation of Dr. Bah’s academic freedom as a fundamental human right.
After receiving his PhD from Northwestern University’s Department of History in 2023, Chernoh Bah is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow in Public Service there. His areas of specialization include economic and labor history, prison labor and medical history in West Africa. In recent years, he has written on a variety of topics ranging from the management of the Ebola outbreak to crime and governmental corruption in the region. He is also the editor-in-chief of Africanist Press where news and developments in Sierra Leone and neighboring regions are frequently covered.
According to leaked documents obtained and published by Africanist Press, the ongoing harassment campaign started in 2022 when the Sierra Leonean President’s Office, Law Officers Department and Office of National Security decided to act against Bah and the Africanist Press. The reason initiating governmental harassment against Bah seems to have been his coverage of the misuse of funds by the President and the illegal transfer of funds to the Office of the First Lady. According to another leaked document, the Bank of Sierra Leone filed a criminal complaint with the Office of the Attorney General and the Ministry of Justice against Bah and the Africanist Press, claiming that he disclosed non-public information about the bank and its clients, in violation of the Bank of Sierra Leone Act of 2019.[1] This information was published by Africanist Press as part of a journalistic investigation into the withdrawal of funds for the travel expenses of the President of Sierra Leone’s trip to Lebanon, as well as the transfer of more than US$5 million to the Office of the First Lady, which is “a non-statutory institution unauthorized to receive public funds under Sierra Leonean law”.[2]
Later on, in May 2022, the Office of National Security (ONS) wrote a letter to the Independent Media Commission, which regulates mass media institutions in Sierra Leone, urging it to restrict the publications of Africanist Press that might “[cause] disaffection amongst the public or [incite] then against the government.” The ONS was mainly concerned with the news coverage of Africanist Press that disclosed information about the salaries of top government officials and highlighted discrepancies with other public sector salaries including that of military officers.
Further leaked documents shows that the Sierra Leonean government enlisted the services of Cognyte, a cyberintelligence company that has recently extended services to countries like Colombia, Kenya, Mexico, Thailand, and Indonesia” on multiple occasions in 2021 and 2022. Africanist Press claims that these governments also made use of Cognyte’s services in order to repress societal opposition and silence critics online. Believing that the government has used cyber intelligence services provided by Cognyte to attack their online infrastructure, The Africanist reported that the patterns of cyber-attacks experienced by the news outlet and its editor, Bah, matches that experienced by Sierra Leonean opposition figures.[3] Alongside repression from the government, Dr. Bah has also received death threats online.[4] These attacks and threats have seriously hampered his journalistic work and academic research on Sierra Leone as he has been unable to go back to the country. In a letter addressed to the US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, Dr. Bah stated that he is unable to return to his country because “government officials, have also threatened [him] with criminal prosecution”.[5]
On January 20, 2024, The Interim Executive Director of the Buffett Institute for Global Affairs at Northwestern University, Deborah Cohen, wrote a letter on behalf of the institute, condemning the actions of the government of Sierra Leone and calling for solidarity with Bah. More recently, in July 2024, more than 90 academics signed an open letter calling for an end to harassment and threats directed towards Bah by the Sierra Leonean government.
ESW stands in solidarity with Dr. Chernoh Alpha M. Bah and calls for an immediate end to the attacks, threats and harassment directed against him by the Sierra Leonean government. This series of threats constitutes a gross violation of Dr. Bah’s academic freedom, which is a fundamental human right which Sierra Leone has an obligation to protect under international law. We invite the global community dedicated to upholding human rights to join our call.
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