Ugandan counterterrorism agency raids telecommunications provider

In July 2018, members of the Internal Security Organisation, Uganda's counterintelligence agency, raided South African telecommunications provider MTN's Uganda data centre in Mutundwe. In a letter to the police, MTN said the ISO kidnapped a data manager who worked for the contractor that ran the data centre on MTN's behalf, Huawei Technologies. Moses Keefah Musasizi was taken to the ISO head office in Nakasero and held for four hours before being forced to grant access to the data centre and disconnect four servers. Some sources suggested that the raid was intended to counter surveillance on behalf of a foreign government. Others suggest it was part of a crackdown to defend President Yoweri Museveni's 200 shillings per day tax on social media and mobile money transfers (such as MTN Mobile Money). The tax came into force in May 2018 and which is highly unpopular.

https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/news/government-raids-mtn-uganda-data-center/

Writer: Sebastian Moss

Publication: Data Center Dynamics