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| African Union leaders inaugurated a new US$200m headquarters, paid for by China. The complex in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, is a symbol of China's rapidly changing role in the region as it turns increasingly to Africa to satisfy its appetite for natural resources. AP |
China has denied reports
by French newspaper Le Monde that it has been spying on the African Union (AU)
headquarters in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.
BBC
News reports:
The article (SEE APPROXIMATE TRANSLATION) claimed that over the last five
years, data from the AU building, which was constructed by the Chinese, was
transferred to Shanghai at odd hours.
The
Chinese Ambassador to the AU, Kuang Weili, called the report
"sensational" and "preposterous".
He
also questioned the timing of the report, which was published just a day before
African leaders began their annual summit at the AU headquarters.
The
20-storey building cost US$200m ( £140m) and has housed the headquarters of the
continental body since 2012.
In Addis Ababa,
The Headquarters Of The African Union Spied By Beijing
 |
According
to the documents extracted by Le Monde, in collaboration with the site The
Intercept, archives of the former consultant of the US National Security Agency
(NSA) Edward Snowden, British intelligence agencies (GCHQ) have not spared the
AU. Between 2009 and 2010, several officials saw their calls and e-mails intercepted,
such as Boubou Niang, then special advisor to the UN and AU mediator in Darfur,
Sudan.
|
A year ago, computer scientists building, built in 2012 by the
Chinese, discovered that the entire content of its servers was transferred to Shanghai.
At
the headquarters of the African Union (AU), in Addis Ababa, elevators still
speak Mandarin and the trunks of plastic palm are branded China Development
Bank. New buildings under construction by companies in Beijing or Hong Kong
surround the modern glass tower offered in 2012 by China to Africa. This is
where the 30th summit of the Pan-African organization will take place on Sunday
28 and Monday 29 January.
The
controls are strict to enter this building where ministers and heads of state
meet twice a year to discuss the major issues of the continent. There is,
however, an invisible security threat ignored by most leaders and diplomats,
but one that is of utmost concern to some senior AU officials.
In
January 2017, the small computer unit of the AU discovered that its servers
were strangely saturated between midnight and 2 am. The offices were empty, the
activity was dormant, but data transfers were at a peak. A zealous computer
scientist then looked into this anomaly and realized that the internal data of
the AU were massively diverted. Every night, the secrets of this institution,
according to several internal sources, found themselves stored more than 8,000
km from Addis Ababa, mysterious servers hosted somewhere in Shanghai, the
Chinese megacity.
"Gift
of China to friends of Africa"
The
new building, "China's Gift to Friends of Africa", was donated just
six years ago. It has been fully equipped by the Chinese. The computer systems
were delivered turnkey. And Chinese engineers have deliberately left two flaws:
backdoors, which give discrete access to all internal exchanges and productions
of the organization.
According
to several sources within the institution, all sensitive content could be spied
on by China. A spectacular leak of data, which would have spread from January
2012 to January 2017. Contacted, the Chinese mission to the AU did not follow
our requests.
Since
then, the AU has acquired its own servers and declined China's offer to
configure them. On the ground floor of the glass tower, in a room that goes
unnoticed, is a data center that focuses much of the information system of the
organization. All electronic communications are now encrypted and no longer
pass through Ethio Telecom, the public operator in Ethiopia, a country renowned
for its cybersurveillance and electronic espionage capabilities. From now on,
the highest officials of the institution have foreign telephone lines and more
secure applications.
At
the 29th AU Summit in July 2017, new security measures were tested. Four
specialists from Algeria, one of the institution's biggest financial
contributors, and Ethiopian cybersecurity experts inspected the rooms and
flushed out microphones placed under the desks and walls. "Nothing to be listened
to by the Chinese, loose the head of diplomacy of a great African power. At
least they have never colonized us, supported the struggles of independence on
the continent and help us economically today. "
A
new computer architecture, independent of the Chinese, has also been deployed.
As this videoconferencing system, developed by the internal computer teams and
used by heads of state, which works by cable and not by Wi-Fi. Thus, the few
diplomats and heads of state cautious can continue to use their jammers waves
unhindered.
The
African Union is satisfied with only US$10 million dollars (€8 million) of
budget allocated to informatics. With the exception of the World Bank, which
paid for part of the new data center, foreign partners are showing little
interest in financing a cyber security agency. "It suits everyone that it
is a colander, deplores an official already present at the time of the
Organization of African Unity (OAU, 1963-2002). We let ourselves be listened to
and we do not say anything. The Chinese are there twenty-seven hours a day,
have planted a lot of microphones and cyber espionage tools when they built
this building. And they are not alone!"
Some
Western powers favour human intelligence at the AU. Like the French
intelligence services who, in addition to their technical espionage devices,
tried to convince heads of state of the French squares to inform them behind
the scenes of these summits and have tried to "recruit" those who
have acceded to the rotating presidency of the AU or the head of the
Commission, according to many of them, annoyed by this approach deemed
"humiliating."
The
Pan-African organization has always been particularly committed to the defense
of sovereignty and territorial integrity, two principles that feature in the AU
Constitutive Act. However, due to lack of resources and awareness among heads
of state and most officials, pan-African digital territories remain at the
mercy of foreign spies.
"Here,
it's safe" Inch Allah "! A senior official quipped. Attributed to
China, the huge operation of infiltration of computer systems, for five long
years, has nevertheless reminded some senior officials of the AU that it may be
time, while the reform of the institution at this January summit, to secure
their cyberspace.
SOURCE:
LE MONDE
TRANSLATED
WITH GOOGLE TRANSLATE
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