The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) is alarmed by the reappearance of three Burkinabè journalists—Guezouma Sanogo, Boukari Ouoba, and Luc Pagbelguem—in a viral video showing them dressed in military uniforms.
The footage, widely shared online on April 2, 2025, has sparked concern that the journalists have been unlawfully conscripted by the country’s military junta.
Sanogo and Ouoba, who serve as President and Vice President of the Association des journalistes du Burkina, were arrested on March 24 after reportedly criticising the junta’s restrictions on freedom of expression. Pagbelguem, a journalist with private television station BF1, also went missing around the same time.
For 10 days, the whereabouts of all three remained unknown. Requests for information from their families and legal representatives were disregarded by the authorities.
In the video, the journalists appear in military fatigues and seem to be celebrating a successful military operation. This has raised fears that they have been forcibly conscripted into active service.
Such fears are grounded in precedent. In October 2024, authorities admitted to conscripting three journalists—Serge Oulon, Adama Bayala, and Kalifara Séré—months after their unexplained disappearance.
According to Human Rights Watch, the Burkinabè government has used sweeping emergency laws and a “general mobilisation” decree (part of its strategy to combat Islamist armed groups) to conscript junta critics, including journalists, civil society activists, and magistrates in an effort to silence them.
Although the law permits civilian conscription in the name of national defence, such actions must follow due process. Using conscription as a form of punishment or repression is unlawful.
The apparent forced enlistment of the three journalists is a violation of their fundamental rights and a grave threat to press freedom.
The MFWA strongly condemns this development and urges the Burkinabè authorities to reverse the conscription. The three journalists must be allowed to return to their families and professional duties.
