On July 10, 2025, journalist Comlan Hugues Sossoukpè was arrested in the Ivory Coast, where he was covering a government tech conference, and extradited to his country of origin, Benin, despite having lived in Togo since 2019 as a refugee.
Sossoukpè is the publishing director of the online newspaper Olofofo Info, which was banned in Benin in March 2025 for publishing “subversive” and “unfounded allegations” that could “endanger public order” and “national cohesion.”
He received refugee status in Togo after receiving threats in his home country, Benin, related to his work.
On July 10, four people who identified themselves as Ivorian law enforcement officers and a fifth who said he was a “colonel of the gendarmerie” asked Sossoukpè to respond to a summons, the journalist’s lawyer, Maximin Pognon, told CPJ.
Sossoukpè said he recognized two of them as Beninese police officers and demanded to be brought before a judge, Pognon said. But they seized Sossoukpè’s phone and computer, took him to the law enforcement headquarters, and escorted him aboard a plane to Benin, the lawyer said.
On July 14, 2025, the Court for the Repression of Economic Offences and Terrorism (CRIET) upheld Sossoukpè’s detention in Benin’s southern city of Ouidah, pending investigation of charges of inciting rebellion, inciting hatred and violence, harassing through electronic communication, and apology for terrorism, according to a copy of the court document, reviewed by CPJ.
Two people familiar with the case told CPJ, on condition of anonymity, citing fear of reprisals, that Sossoukpè had alerted his friends of plans to kidnap him, days before his arrest.
As of July 2025, CPJ’s calls and text messages to Andy Kouassi, communications director at the Ivorian communications ministry, and Wilfried Léandre Houngbédji, Benin government spokesperson, and an email to the Ivorian gendarmerie, did not receive any replies.