In Africa, the “big ears” market is booming. Heads of State, opponents, men
business: no one is safe from hackers, and protecting against them is a real challenge. Investigate a very lucrative
shadow war.
The building does not look like much. Stuck between the parking lot of the employees of the Gabonese presidency and the wall
of enclosure along the boulevard de la République, in Libreville, nothing distinguishes it from the others, except, perhaps,
the bush of bristling antennae on its roof. No visitor to the Palais du bord de mer, occasional or regular,
lets his gaze wander over its three seemingly harmless floors. A stone's throw away, the esplanade of the
palace catches the eye. Further on, the administrative buildings swallow the small hands of the Republic. Nothing like it here.
In this palace of “big ears”, we prefer to remain discreet.
Behind these off-white walls, however, hides the Silam, the listening center of the presidency, which runs
Frenchman Jean-Charles Solon. This former soldier who went through the technical services of the General Management
foreign intelligence (DGSE, the French intelligence services), now a civil servant
full-fledged Gabonese, is the master of tapping in Libreville. Theoretically subject to the supervision of the Management
general of the special services of the presidency, headed by Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema, he actually has
of its autonomy.
Every day, notes are sent in sealed envelopes to the Head of State, Ali Bongo Ondimba, whose
office is close by. Transcription of wiretaps, interceptions of text messages or conversations on
WhatsApp, spying on email exchanges or on social networks… Jean-Charles Solon is, according to our
sources, well equipped. It is true that Silam has long benefited from French expertise, from the SDECE (Service
external documentation and counterintelligence) then the DGSE. Today, private specialists linked
to French services have taken over, such as the company Amesys (which became Ames and Nexa Technologies, read
p. 31), or the more confidential Ercom and Suneris Solutions.
It's one of the Amesys softwares, called "Cerebro", which once operated the big ears of the
Silam. A variant of the technology marketed by the French in Libya, at the time of Muammar
Gaddafi, or in Morocco at the turn of the 2010s. Ercom and Suneris Solution also occupy a leading position.
choice on the African market, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. The first, which notably equipped Mali and
Senegal, specializes in securing electronic and telephone exchanges. The second… in
their interception. Both are based south-west of Paris, in Villacoublay, not far from the Command
special operations (COS) of the army. They are the (discreet) commercial showcases of the technologies of
French espionage.
In Villacoublay, the service is à la carte. “We do demonstrations of certain technologies, on occasion
exhibitions or visits, then we adapt the proposed solution to the customer's request", confides a player in the
sector. At Suneris, it is a division called Homeland – named after the American spy series – which
is on the move. About forty employees work there, under the seal of defense secrecy, at the
development of listening systems for foreign customers, among which are, according to a former
employee interviewed by investigative journalist Olivier Tesquet, author of an investigation on the subject for the
Télérama magazine, Côte d'Ivoire, Gabon and Mali. Brains of these little geniuses have already come out
a few gadgets worthy, there too, of a series of espionage: false antennas-relays making it possible to penetrate telephones, a car capable of “sucking up data”. It is then up to the sales people to sell these prying eyes
jewelry in Prague, Dubai, Paris or Dakar.
“Customers want to buy something that has proven itself. We are not looking for the experimental gadget ",
emphasizes a regular at the salons. For Africa, the two events not to be missed are the Milipol show, in
November, in Paris, and the ISS World Middle East and Africa, in March, in Dubai. In France, everything is played out in a
cozy environment where soldiers, entrepreneurs and intermediaries meet. Ercom's stand showcases the
merits of its secure phones, which President Emmanuel Macron is equipped with. Nexa Technologies
presents an interception van at only 5 million euros. Suneris Solutions is more discreet. But the
French are no longer alone in the market.
Return to Libreville, in the corridors of Silam. If the Frenchman Jean-Charles Solon is indeed the boss there, his
subordinates are Israeli. For several years, companies from the Jewish state have dominated the market for
listening in sub-Saharan Africa. Difficult to name them all. The famous NSO (another Milipol exhibitor,
Paris) holds a place of choice, with major strongholds in Kenya and Côte d'Ivoire. But the mesh of
businesses in Herzliya, a northern coastal district of Tel Aviv and Israel's "Silicon Valley of espionage", is
dense: Mer Group (Congo, Guinea, Nigeria, DR Congo, where it equips the National Intelligence Agency),
Verint Systems or Elbit Systems (South Africa, Angola, Ethiopia, Nigeria, etc.).
In addition to American funding, the main asset of the Israelis is their close ties with the army and the services
of intelligence. In Herzliya, veterans of IDF Unit 8200 (which specializes in cyber warfare) and
ex-spies are well established. One of them, Shabtaï Shavit, the boss of Athena GS3, a subsidiary of Mer Group,
headed the Mossad from 1989 to 1996 and knows the African continent particularly well for having favored the
relations of its services with the Zaire of Mobutu Sese Seko then with Cameroon (see p. 25).
And the Israelis have many other representatives. Businessman Gaby Peretz, born in Morocco and
today boss of the company AD Consultants, is very established there. "Ad Con" is one of the main relays of
Israeli technology in Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central Africa, Chad, Gabon,
in Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda or Senegal. Didier Sabag, a Franco-Israeli from Casablanca, is
meanwhile at the head of Sapna Ltd, which operates in the Central African Republic, Benin, Guinea-Bissau and Morocco
on behalf of Herzliya's suppliers. In Côte d'Ivoire again, Stéphane Konan, the former specialist in
cybercrime at the Ministry of the Interior, encouraged the establishment of the giant NSO and the Israelis in the
interior and then defense ministries of Hamed Bakayoko, as well as to the presidency, where the prefect Vassiriki
Traoré transmits directly to the head of state Alassane Ouattara and his brother Birahima.
NSO even recently secured the services of a French diplomat, in the person of Gérard Araud.
This former French ambassador to Israel (from 2003 to 2006) explains that he "advises the company on how to
protect human rights and privacy”. It must be said that the company does not have good press. Since 2016,
she is singled out for having marketed the Pegasus software, which allows you to spy on a phone,
to record its GPS positions and communications (SMS, emails, WhatsApp, Telegram, Skype, etc.), to collect
the list of contacts or to activate the microphone and the camera of the device. According to Amnesty International,
this technology would have been used to spy on human rights defenders or opponents in Rwanda,
Morocco or Uganda.
These three countries have denied, even if Paul Kagame assumes the fact that Kigali has "always made
information”. "This is how all countries operate," said the Rwandan president in November 2019.
It is a means of knowing one's enemies and those who support them. “Everyone wants to equip themselves for
monitor criminals and terrorists, confirms a cybersecurity expert. The problem is that all
world does not have the same definition of the word “terrorist”. »
For its part, NSO confines itself to declaring that its software is subject to the allocation of a license from the authorities.
Israelis. The business is legal, since it complies with export laws. Same speech on the side of
French competitors: in France, each contract is subject to the approval of the Interministerial Commission
dual-use goods. The only problem is that the deliberations of the latter, which brings together the Prime Minister, the
Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Interior and Defence, as well as the intelligence services are
subject to defense secrecy. "If we don't sell, the Israelis or others will," concludes a
industry expert.
“Israelis are everywhere. They even managed to equip Saudi Arabia! It is almost impossible to
circumvent”, slips a regular of the market in Dubai. Some, however, do better than resist. The British and
the Danes of BAE Systems have succeeded in establishing themselves in South Africa, Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia. The
English and the Germans of Gamma Group have meanwhile signed in Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa,
in Angola, Egypt or Morocco. And those of Trovicor (since acquired by the French from Nexa Technologies) are in Egypt, Ethiopia and Tunisia. Finally, the Italians of Hacking Team have been spotted in Egypt, in
Ethiopia, Morocco, Nigeria, Uganda or Sudan, while the South Africans of VasTech (read
opposite) work or have worked in Libya and Algeria.
“France has rested on its laurels, explains a French player in the sector. We have long controlled the
main communication entry points in Africa, but the data was intercepted en masse, without
really analyze them. The Israelis ended up getting ahead of us. » Particularly in Ivory Coast, where the know-how
of Tel-Aviv quickly seduced and where Israel found its account economically and… politically. "It gave them
given the possibility of installing listening systems that could reach the Lebanese communities, in order to
know whether or not they were financing Hezbollah”, judges an expert.
"The Israelis are developing solutions much faster than us," the same source further explains.
“They are dozens while, on the French side, we prefer to gather everything under the same mastodon. This us
slows down. The “mastodon” is Thales, which recently acquired Ercom and Suneris Solutions. jostled in
Ivory Coast by the Israelis, he is trying to preserve his bridgehead in Senegal, where the United States has
their own facilities. On November 6, 2018, Jean-Yves Le Drian, French Minister for Foreign Affairs,
moreover inaugurated in Dakar a school dedicated to the training of African executives in cybersecurity. And it is to
Rufisque, commune of Dakar, that the French have their largest wiretapping center in West Africa
the West. Powered by… Thales.
Thales and the technology used by the DGSE are not lacking in arguments, relayed by intermediaries such as
as the former Minister of Defense Charles Millon, missi dominici of Suneris. Presence at the highest level
of the Franco-African diplomacy of the former DGSE, Franck Paris, today "Mister Africa"
of Emmanuel Macron, and Rémi Maréchaux, Africa Director of the Quai d'Orsay, is also an undeniable plus.
But this is not enough. "Today, the French are sometimes no longer able to work alone", deplores
our source. “In the Sahel, it is the Americans and the Chinese who lead the game,” she continues.
A revealing example: in May 2019, it was the eyes and ears of the United States, via one of their satellites, that
allowed the French Special Operations Command to launch the hostage recovery operation
from the Pendjari park. Another sign that hardly deceives, President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta would have recently
chose to turn to its Chinese partners, less stingy according to him than Paris in the exchange of data.
Finally, some diplomats are worried about the advance of the Russians, since the Proteï company displayed its
ambitions at the Russia-Africa summit in Sochi in October 2019. Already present in Tunisia (with Tunisie
Telecom) and in Sudan (with MTN), it markets products developed by the Russian services of the FSB.
“The Russians are more and more present in Dubai, where there is a significant interest for Africa”, confides a
market player in the Gulf.
“We watch the Russians from afar, but the real danger comes from the Chinese, who are already doing what they want in
Algeria”, explains a French entrepreneur. In a West African country, the Chinese operator Huawei
controls the communications network, and no port opening, necessary for setting up listening,
cannot be done without warning. “This is not surprising, smiles a source. A few years ago, the
DGSE machines in Paris were partly equipped with Chinese equipment! "The French and the
Americans regularly warn us against China, telling us that it hides
snitches in its systems and eavesdrops on our communications. But, in this environment, who doesn't? »
tempers an African diplomat. In August 2019, a Wall Street Journal investigation explained how
Huawei used its networks in Zambia and Uganda (where opponent Bobi Wine claims to have been spied on) to
help monitor adversaries to local authorities. The Chinese firm has denied.
The Ugandan government has confirmed that it has links with Huawei and explained that the technicians
of this group worked with the police and intelligence services for national security purposes. In
January 2018, Beijing had already had to refrain from spying on the premises of the African Union in Addis Ababa.
Result: the "new silk road", a set of networks that Beijing wants to deploy between Europe,
Africa and Asia, particularly worries Westerners.
Huawei, but also its compatriot ZTE Corporations (notably present in Ethiopia), are involved in the
first chief. Both companies are working hard to equip their customers with
surveillance (including facial recognition cameras in Morocco, Algeria, Egypt, Côte
d'Ivoire, Rwanda, Kenya or South Africa). But is there a hidden side to what China presents
as a win-win partnership? “They build and manage infrastructure based on networks
of optical fiber. As a result, they have the technical ability to spy on everything that goes through these networks,” explains
an expert. “None of our countries is able to do enough surveillance on their own. Whether with
Westerners or others, we have no choice but to trust,” concludes a Sahelian diplomat.

One thing is certain, whether they are brought by the French, the Russians or the Chinese, no one seems to be able
completely shield themselves from these technologies. “To break into a network, a telephone or a
computer, you just have to pay the price, assures an entrepreneur in the sector. No one is fully protected. »
Including the most knowledgeable users. In 2018, Jeff Bezos, the boss of Amazon and owner of the
Washington Post, saw his phone infected with a virus that would have infiltrated via a WhatsApp conversation
with the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammad Bin Salman. Several tens of gigabytes have thus been
stolen, and an investigation is underway, in particular to determine if this leak has a link with the assassination of Jamal
Khashoggi, Post reporter. Since then, WhatsApp (like Apple shortly before it) has announced an update to its
system, supposed to protect you against intrusions. But our source concludes: "It's endless. When Apple has
announced its new system, the Israelis had already found the flaw! »