Two weeks after the military junta in Burkina Faso detained three journalists for criticizing its tightening grip on the media, the men have surfaced in a video wearing military uniforms—raising fears they were forcibly conscripted, Human Rights Watch said.
The journalists—Guezouma Sanogo and Boukari Ouoba, president and vice president of Burkina Faso’s Journalists Association, along with their colleague Luc Pagbelguem—were arrested by the national intelligence service in late March. The arrests came shortly after they allegedly spoke out against the junta’s crackdown on free expression.
The arrests coincided with remarks from interim President Ibrahim Traoré, who declared a “war on communications” and warned that “imperialists may use it to set fire” to the country.
Since their detention, the journalists’ families and lawyers have received no response to repeated requests for information about their whereabouts, according to the human rights group.
In the unverified video cited by Human Rights Watch, the three men appear near what seems to be a military base. They are interviewed while dressed in camouflage. “What you do is marvelous,” Pagbelguem says in the footage, apparently referring to a successful military operation. Although the video’s authenticity could not be confirmed, colleagues of the journalists said they recognized them.
Human Rights Watch said the incident echoes a troubling pattern in which authorities use conscription to silence dissent.
“On February 18, 2024, the opposition politician Ablassé Ouédraogo and prominent human rights activist Daouda Diallo, both abducted in December 2023, appeared in footage wearing camouflage uniforms, holding Kalashnikov-style assault rifles, and participating in military exercises, presumably in a conflict zone. They have since been released,” the group said.
The organization has documented the use of a sweeping emergency law and a “general mobilization” decree—measures ostensibly aimed at fighting Islamist armed groups—to force critics, including journalists, activists and magistrates, into military service.
It warned that Burkinabe authorities should “immediately release the three journalists and stop the use of conscription to repress the media and critics.”
“While governments are empowered to conscript adult civilians for national defense, conscription should not take place unless it has been authorized and is in accordance with domestic law,” the Human Rights Watch said.
