Positive step but unresolved cases remain
The Burkina Faso government has taken a welcome step by releasing five journalists and a human rights activist who were unlawfully conscripted into the military after criticizing the military junta. While this release marks progress, it also highlights the plight of others still missing, some since 2024, with no trace of their whereabouts.
Forced conscription linked to media criticism
In March 2024, authorities in Ouagadougou, the capital, arrested Guezouma Sanogo, Boukari Ouoba, and Phil Roland Zongo—three members of the Burkina Faso Journalists’ Association (AJB)—alongside Luc Pagbelguem, a journalist from the private television channel BF1. Their arrest followed their public condemnation of restrictions on freedom of expression imposed by the junta. By early April 2024, a video surfaced online showing Sanogo, Ouoba, and Pagbelguem in military uniforms, raising concerns about their forced conscription. Phil Roland Zongo’s conscription was only confirmed upon his eventual release.
In June 2024, Kalifara Séré, a commentator for BF1 TV, disappeared after a meeting with members of the Superior Council of Communication (CSC), Burkina Faso’s media regulatory body. The CSC had questioned Séré about doubts he expressed regarding the authenticity of photographs showing the head of state. In October 2024, authorities admitted that Séré, along with two other journalists—Serge Oulon and Adama Bayala—had been conscripted into the military. The current whereabouts of Serge Oulon and Adama Bayala remain unknown.
On November 29, 2023, plainclothes men identifying themselves as national intelligence officers abducted Lamine Ouattara, a member of the Burkinabè Movement for Human and Peoples’ Rights (MBDHP), from his home. Relatives later confirmed that Ouattara had also been forcibly conscripted.
Emergency law exploited to silence dissent
Human Rights Watch has documented how the junta has used a sweeping state of emergency law to conscript critics, journalists, human rights activists, and even magistrates as a means of suppression. While governments have the right to draft civilians for national defense, such conscription must adhere to transparency, clearly informing potential conscripts of their service duration and providing avenues for appeal.
The Burkinabè authorities must immediately release all remaining individuals unlawfully detained and cease using conscription as a tool to suppress media freedom and dissent.
