Kagame, Moussa Faki Unbothered by Reports on Chinese ‘Spying’ on AU HQs

The leaders of the African Union (AU) have said they are not bothered by reports that the continental body has been spied on by the Chinese government for the last six years.

The Chinese government financed the construction of the Union headquarters in Addis Ababa at a tune of USD 200 million.

Last week, media reports suggested China has been hacking into the African Union system, listening into the conversations of African leaders, a claim dismissed by Chinese officials as baseless.

The reports claim that the IT unit of the AU discovered that its servers were backing up data every-night on mysterious servers hosted somewhere in China.

Responding to questions from journalists at AU headquarters in Addis Ababa during AU summit yesterday, President Paul Kagame who is also the current Chairperson of African Union said business conducted at AU headquarters is transparent, adding “actually, we want all to know what we say inside here.”

The 30th heads of state and government summit of the African Union (AU) opened Sunday in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa, under the theme of anti-corruption.

On corruption, Kagame said “corruption is not an African thing”, adding: it wasn’t born here, lives here or will die here.”

During the summit, key issues of the institutional reform of the AU, the Continental Free Trade Area, the composition of the Bureau of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the AU and the implementation of Agenda 2063, a development blueprint for Africa were discussed.

“Everybody spies. There is nothing to be spied (on) here,” Kagame told journalists. He, however said he wished the building was constructed by Africans themselves.

A French newspaper Le Monde has released a report alleging that Beijing has been spying on the continental body but China’s ambassador to the African Union on Monday has denounced the report as “absurd”.

The Le Monde report published last week suggests technicians at the body’s headquarters in the Ethiopian capital found out last year that the content of their computers had been regularly copied to servers in Shanghai since 2012.

Moussa Faki, chairperson of African Union Commission who co-chaired the press conference said he does not think the findings in the report are accurate.

“I think the report is untrue, but is also preposterous and absurd,” Chinese envoy Kuang Weilin told journalists on the sidelines of the AU summit in Addis Ababa.

In its report, Le Monde explains the AU’s servers were changed and its IT systems reworked after the copying was found.

China has increasingly invested in Africa and hailed by African leaders for regularly offering low-interest loans and about USD 149.2 billion in trade with the continent was invested in 2016.