This spring, authorities in Burkina Faso kidnapped two leading figures of the country’s independent press in a chilling escalation of media repression
“Like a seed that is sown, which germinates and grows, hatred and contempt for independent media and professional journalists in Burkina Faso have reached maturity.”
So begins a lyrical, outraged report for the Francophone site Afriquexxi on the kidnapping in March of Guézouma Sanogo and Boukari Ouoba, two leading figures of the country’s independent press. The article is written by ‘Serge Chams’, a pseudonym for a Burkinabe journalist – the author’s anonymity another nod to the dire situation for journalists in the West African nation.
On 24 March, men claiming to belong to Burkina Faso’s intelligence services entered the Norbert Zongo Press Centre in the capital Ouagadougou, where they seized Sanogo and Ouoba – respectively president and vice-president of the Association of Journalists of Burkina (AJB).
The men were taken away, resurfacing only in a video that showed them dressed in military uniforms around a fortnight later. (In July, after the publication of the article in Afriquexxi, Ouoba was released; the whereabouts of Sanogo remain unknown.)
As Chams points out, the persecution of journalists under Ibrahim Traoré’s military rule, which began in 2022 following a coup, is far from unusual. Amid worsening insecurity and jihadist violence, the junta has suspended dozens of media outlets, expelled foreign correspondents, and threatened independent journalists with prison or forced conscription, pushing many into exile while others have simply disappeared.
Where the kidnapping of Sanogo and Ouoba crossed a “new red line” is that it happened in the Norbert Zongo Press Centre – previously considered a safe haven for media professionals.
Named after the country’s most celebrated investigative reporter – who was assassinated in 1998 by soldiers from the Presidential Security Regiment – the centre functions as the “the ultimate refuge for all defenders of freedom, democracy and human rights.” By forcibly entering the space, Chams says, authorities “pulled the trigger of a weapon that will permanently destroy hard-won press freedom”.
Despite threats, both Sanogo and Ouoba – who also held senior roles at the Press Centre – chose to remain in Burkina Faso.
Just days before their disappearance, Sanogo spoke publicly about the need for journalists to maintain ethical standards and resist becoming “web activists”, insisting that professionalism was their only remaining protection in an environment where “submit or disappear” has become the regime’s message to critical voices.
Traoré’s regime, Chams writes, has “chosen to attack the thermometer… rather than find remedies to cure the illness that is eating away at the country.”
Original article (“Journalisme au Burkina Faso: se soumettre ou disparaître”) by Serge Chams was first published in French on 7 April 2025.
It’s available here.
Afriquexii is an independent site run by journalists, academics and activists, devoted to reporting and writing on Africa.
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