ABIDJAN: Authorities detained two journalists in Burkina Faso on Monday after the media body to which they belong denounced attacks on freedom of expression under the country’s military rulers, the association said.
The Journalists’ Association of Burkina Faso (AJB) said on Facebook that its president Guezouma Sanogo and deputy president Boukari Ouoba were detained at a national press centre in the capital Ouagadougou and taken to an unknown destination.
Burkina has seen numerous kidnappings of people viewed as critical of the junta under its chief Ibrahim Traore since he led a coup in 2022.
In remarks to the association’s congress on Friday, Sanogo criticised “attacks on the freedom of expression and the press”, saying they had “reached an unprecedented level”.
Other journalists spoke at the congress of the abductions of seven colleagues last year, some of whom are still missing.
Media rights group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) demanded the authorities “make known where they are detained” and “release them without delay”, in a statement sent to AFP.
The style of arrest — by individuals presenting themselves as intelligence police — “resembles numerous other arrests and abductions organised by the military authorities since their arrival in power”, said RSF’s sub-Saharan Africa director, Sadibou Marong.
Also Monday, a third journalist, Luc Pagbelguem of the private television channel BF1, was taken “by agents of the national security council” who wanted “only to interview him” about a report on the AJB congress, the broadcaster said.
Last week, a political group said five of its members including a journalist had been abducted after it denounced civilian massacres blamed on the army and allied militias.
The group, SENS, had criticised videos posted on social media over the past week showing dozens of bloodied bodies with hands and feet bound, many of them appearing to be women, children or elderly.
Junta denials
Burkinabe authorities have denied the accusations of mass killings by soldiers and allied militias.
International NGOs including RSF and Amnesty International have condemned several of the kidnappings of journalists.
RSF said in its statement on Monday that the arrests were “part of a strategy aiming to systematically silence all critical voices in the country”.
NGOs have also reported cases of people being forcibly recruited into the security forces to be sent to fight jihadists, following a mobilisation order in 2023. The campaigners say the order targets figures critical of the country’s leaders.
In the past decade, Burkina Faso has been caught up in a spiral of violence blamed on jihadists that has spilt over from neighbouring Mali and Niger and since spread beyond the three countries’ borders.
The military authorities in Burkina Faso have also suspended several international media organisations, accusing them of publishing false information about the conflict.
The non-government group ACLED, which researches victims of conflicts, estimates that jihadist violence in the country has killed more than 26,000 people, half of them since the junta took over.
Like its neighbours Niger and Mali, Burkina Faso under Traore has turned away from its former colonial master France and drawn closer to Russia, quitting the regional alliance ECOWAS.
In May 2024 he passed a charter that authorises him to hold power for a further five years.
