Human Rights Watch reported that Burkina Faso’s junta has forcibly enlisted at least a dozen journalists, civil society activists, and opposition members in its crackdown on dissent as part of the anti-jihadist fight.
Captain Ibrahim Traore, the transitional president of Burkina who assumed power in a September 2022 coup, announced in April a one-year “general mobilization,” granting authorities the authority to conscript individuals aged 18 and above if deemed necessary in the fight against jihadists.
In a statement on Wednesday, Human Rights Watch (HRW) asserted that the junta was employing the broad emergency law against individuals perceived as dissidents.
Between November 4 and 5, security forces informed the group of at least 12 individuals through written notifications or telephone calls that they would be summoned to participate in government security operations, as reported by Human Rights Watch.
The Burkinabe Movement for the Rights of Man and the People stated on Sunday that the ruling Patriotic Movement for Preservation and Restoration is engaged in “carrying out a massive and targeted requisition of citizens, by applying the general mobilisation decree”.
A prominent conglomerate trade union, the CGT-B, also condemned the “arbitrary” requisitions and “the harassment of citizens who have expressed opinions critical of the transitional authorities”.
Burkina Faso is grappling with a jihadist insurgency that originated from neighboring Mali in 2015, resulting in over 17,000 civilian and military casualties and displacing two million people.
