Burkina Faso: military junta escalates media crackdown with journalist arrests
Nairobi – Human Rights Watch reported today that the military junta in Burkina Faso detained three journalists on March 24, 2025, for their reporting on the government’s escalating suppression of media outlets.
The authorities apprehended Guezouma Sanogo, president of the Association of Journalists of Burkina (AJB), Boukari Ouoba, its vice-president, and Luc Pagbelguem, a journalist with the private television channel BF1, in the capital city of Ouagadougou. The current whereabouts of these three individuals remain undisclosed, raising serious concerns about potential enforced disappearances.
« The arbitrary apprehension and subsequent disappearance of these three journalists underscore the Burkina Faso junta’s desperate attempt to control information and ensure military authorities can act with impunity », stated Ilaria Allegrozzi, senior Sahel researcher at Human Rights Watch. « The military regime must take immediate steps to locate and secure the release of these three journalists. »
Since seizing power in a 2022 coup, the military junta led by President Ibrahim Traoré has consistently suppressed independent media, political opposition, and peaceful dissent. Amidst a worsening Islamist insurgency, the junta has leveraged sweeping emergency legislation to silence dissenting voices and unlawfully conscript critics, including journalists, civil society activists, and even magistrates, into the armed forces.
On March 21, the AJB held a press conference to condemn the military junta’s restrictions on freedom of expression and demand the release of arbitrarily detained journalists. Three days later, on March 24, plainclothes individuals identifying themselves as police officers from Burkinabè intelligence services arrested Guezouma Sanogo and Boukari Ouoba. Separately, two intelligence agents detained Luc Pagbelguem for his coverage of the AJB’s press conference. The following day, the Minister of Territorial Administration and Mobility dissolved the AJB.
Colleagues of Guezouma Sanogo and Boukari Ouoba reported that lawyers searched numerous police stations and gendarmeries in the capital without success, and authorities have provided no official response to inquiries about their whereabouts. On March 25, intelligence services brought Sanogo and Ouoba to their homes for police searches, then transported them again to an unknown location, according to their colleagues.
BF1 television channel stated that agents from the National Security Council had assured them they « only wished to interview our colleague », yet Luc Pagbelguem’s location remains unknown. The channel subsequently issued a formal apology for broadcasting the press conference.
In another recent incident, on March 18, men claiming to be gendarmes apprehended prominent political activist and journalist Idrissa Barry in Ouagadougou. His whereabouts are also unknown. Barry is a member of the political group Servir et Non se Servir (SENS), which, four days prior to his arrest, had published a statement condemning « deadly attacks » by government forces and allied militias against civilians near Solenzo, western Burkina Faso, on March 11.
Earlier, in June 2024, security forces detained renowned journalist Serge Oulon, director of the investigative newspaper L’Événement, along with television commentators Adama Bayala and Kalifara Séré. Authorities initially denied their detention until October 2024, when they eventually acknowledged that all three had been conscripted into military service. Their current locations remain undisclosed.
In April 2024, the Superior Council of Communication (CSC), Burkina Faso’s media regulator, suspended the French television channel TV5 Monde and several other media outlets for two weeks after they reported on a Human Rights Watch report detailing the army’s alleged crimes against humanity targeting civilians in Yatenga province. The CSC also blocked Human Rights Watch’s website within the country.
Dozens of journalists have been compelled to flee Burkina Faso, facing threats of imprisonment, torture, enforced disappearance, and forced conscription due to their professional activities.
« I have departed Ouagadougou and have no intention of returning », a journalist confided to Human Rights Watch following Idrissa Barry’s arrest. « Free media is no longer alive in this nation – all that remains is government propaganda. »
This latest wave of suppression against independent media coincides with an intensification of conflict across the nation. Over the past two weeks, the Al-Qaeda-linked Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (GSIM, or Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wa al-Muslimeen, JNIM) has launched attacks on military positions in various regions, resulting in casualties among soldiers and civilians. Local sources reported that on March 15, GSIM fighters assaulted the Séguénéga military base in the country’s north, killing seven civilians and at least four soldiers fighting alongside local militias. Human Rights Watch has verified video footage depicting GSIM combatants storming a fortified hilltop complex in central Séguénéga.
« Burkina Faso’s relentless descent into widespread violence is not receiving the national attention and media coverage it warrants, primarily because independent media has been silenced », an exiled Burkinabè journalist observed. « Recent incidents, such as the deadly assault on civilians in Solenzo and other areas, are either completely ignored by pro-government media or presented with a severe bias. »
International human rights law prohibits arbitrary restrictions on freedom of expression rights, including through the detention or enforced disappearance of journalists. The International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Forced Disappearance, to which Burkina Faso is a state party, defines enforced disappearance as the arrest or detention of a person by state officials or their agents, followed by a refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of liberty or to disclose the person’s fate or whereabouts.
« The necessity for independent media in Burkina Faso has never been more critical », Ilaria Allegrozzi affirmed. « Authorities must reverse course and cease their brutal crackdown on journalists, dissidents, and political opponents. »
