Leveraging the US-EU Trade Agreement to Combat Transnational Repression
TRANSNATIONAL REPRESSION: NORWAY AND FINLAND JUST AS LIABLE AS CAMEROUN AND NIGERIA
Transnational repression—authoritarian regimes silencing dissidents beyond their borders—casts a dark shadow over global human rights. Norway and Finland, despite their stellar human rights records, have facilitated this repression by detaining activists like Lucas Ayaba Cho and Simon Ekpa at the behest of Cameroon and Nigeria. The brazen kidnapping of Nnamdi Kanu exemplifies Nigeria’s ruthless tactics. The United States, through its historic 2025 trade agreement with the European Union, has a unique opportunity to address these injustices by imposing sanctions on all four countries and recognizing Biafra and Ambazonia’s self-determination struggles. This trade deal, with its massive economic leverage, can be a powerful tool to facilitate justice for the repressed.
Norway and Finland: Complicity in Repression
BRGIE PRIME MINISTER,SIMON EKPA
Norway and Finland, ranked among the freest nations (Freedom House 2025: Finland 100/100, Norway 99/100), have undermined their democratic credentials by enabling transnational repression. In September 2024, Norway arrested Lucas Ayaba Cho, a Cameroonian Ambazonian leader, on charges of inciting crimes against humanity, following Cameroon’s request. Cameroon’s regime, responsible for over 6,500 deaths in the Anglophone crisis since 2016, uses such charges to silence exiles. Norway’s compliance, possibly influenced by diplomatic pressures, aligns it with Cameroon’s repressive agenda.
Similarly, Finland detained Simon Ekpa, a Finnish-Biafran activist, in November 2024 after Nigeria threatened to cancel trade deals. Ekpa, a legal resident organizing a Biafran independence referendum, was labeled a terrorist by Nigeria, a country with a history of anti-Igbo violence, including the 1967–1970 Biafran War genocide. Finland’s capitulation prioritizes economic interests over human rights, contradicting its commitments under the EU’s Area of Freedom, Security, and Justice. Both nations’ actions—part of 780 documented cases of democratic states facilitating repression since 2014—expose their liability in enabling authoritarian regimes.
Cameroon and Nigeria: Orchestrators of Repression
DR LUCAS AYABA CHO, PRESIDENT OF THE AMBAZONIA GOVERNING COUNCIL
Cameroon and Nigeria are primary perpetrators of transnational repression. Cameroon’s government, under Paul Biya’s 40-year rule, targets Ambazonian separatists abroad, as seen in the 2018 arrest of Julius Ayuk Tabe in Nigeria and Cho’s detention in Norway. Nigeria’s campaign against Biafran activists includes extradition requests and violent renditions, exploiting international systems like Interpol. Both nations, ranked low for freedom (Cameroon 15/100, Nigeria 43/100), systematically suppress dissent at home and abroad, with Cameroon displacing 583,000 and Nigeria perpetuating ethnic violence.
Nnamdi Kanu’s Kidnapping: A Stark Example
MAZI NNAMDI KANU,LEADER OF THE INDEGENOUS PEOPLE OF BIAFA
The 2021 kidnapping of Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), is a textbook case of transnational repression. Abducted in Kenya and renditioned to Nigeria, Kanu—a British-Nigerian citizen—faces terrorism charges for advocating Biafran independence. His detention, marked by torture and legal violations, reflects Nigeria’s strategy of using extrajudicial means to silence exiles. The Biafran struggle, rooted in decades of Igbo marginalization, is met with state-sponsored violence, with Human Rights Watch (2024) documenting Nigeria’s ongoing renditions. Kanu’s case underscores the urgency of international intervention.
The US-EU Trade Agreement: A Lever for Justice
The 2025 US-EU Cooperation Agreement on Reciprocal, Fair and Balanced Trade, announced by President Trump, is a landmark deal with $600 billion in EU investment and $750 billion in US energy exports through 2028. This agreement, covering tariffs, digital trade, and economic security, provides the US with unprecedented leverage to address transnational repression. Here’s how it can facilitate justice:
Economic Pressure through Trade Sanctions: The agreement includes mechanisms to address non-market policies and enhance supply chain resilience, which can be extended to human rights conditions. The US can impose targeted sanctions on officials in Cameroon and Nigeria responsible for transnational repression, such as those behind Kanu’s kidnapping and Cho’s arrest. By leveraging the EU’s commitment to eliminate tariffs and invest heavily, the US can push EU members like Norway and Finland to adopt stricter safeguards against politically motivated extraditions. Sanctions could target Norwegian and Finnish officials complicit in these detentions, signaling that democratic nations are not exempt from accountability.
Conditioning Trade Benefits on Human Rights: The US-EU deal emphasizes “no free riders,” ensuring benefits flow only to the US and EU. The US can condition trade benefits—like tariff reductions or energy export quotas—on EU cooperation in countering transnational repression. For instance, the US could press the EU to adopt an anti-coercion instrument, as proposed in 2023, to deter Norway and Finland from complying with authoritarian requests. This could include visa bans or asset freezes for complicit officials, aligning trade policy with human rights goals.
Strengthening Transatlantic Human Rights Advocacy: The agreement’s focus on economic security alignment offers a platform for joint US-EU action against repressive regimes. The US can advocate for a transatlantic framework to protect exiles, urging the EU to harmonize its Justice and Home Affairs policies to prioritize asylum protections over extradition requests from countries like Cameroon and Nigeria. The EU’s Schengen area, encompassing Norway, could adopt stricter vetting of Interpol notices to prevent abuse, directly addressing cases like Cho and Ekpa.
A Call for Sanctions and Recognition
The US must impose Magnitsky-style sanctions on officials in Cameroon, Nigeria, Norway, and Finland involved in these cases. Cameroon’s and Nigeria’s leadership should face asset freezes and travel bans for orchestrating repression, while Norwegian and Finnish officials should be targeted for enabling it through detentions. These sanctions, supported by the US-EU trade deal’s economic weight, would deter further complicity and signal global intolerance for transnational repression.
Moreover, the US should recognize Biafra and Ambazonia’s self-determination struggles. Cameroon’s Anglophone crisis and Nigeria’s anti-Igbo policies—rooted in historical violence—justify this recognition, akin to US support for Kosovo and South Sudan. The US-EU trade agreement’s influence, with its massive investment and energy commitments, can amplify diplomatic pressure on Cameroon and Nigeria to negotiate with these movements, potentially through EU-mediated talks under the Common Foreign and Security Policy.
Norway and Finland’s facilitation of transnational repression, through the arrests of Cho and Ekpa, implicates them alongside Cameroon and Nigeria’s overt campaigns, exemplified by Kanu’s kidnapping. The 2025 US-EU trade agreement provides a powerful tool to address these injustices, using economic leverage to enforce sanctions and strengthen human rights protections. By conditioning trade benefits on reform and recognizing Biafra and Ambazonia, the US can lead a transatlantic effort to combat repression. Silence is complicity; the US must act now.
For further reading, see Freedom House’s 2025 report (https://freedomhouse.org) and Human Rights Watch’s 2024 analysis (https://www.hrw.org).