A year after journalist Serge Oulon disappeared in Burkina Faso, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has denounced the ruling junta’s “unacceptable silence.”
RSF raised Oulon’s case in an official letter to the Burkinabe ambassador in Senegal, demanding clarity on his fate.
Despite repeated calls for answers, authorities have yet to respond, deepening concerns over press freedom in the country.
Oulon, editor of the investigative bimonthly L’Evenement, was abducted from his home on June 24, 2024, by armed men claiming to be from the National Intelligence Agency.
RSF reported that Burkinabe officials “accepted” his forced enlistment into the army in October, but details remain murky.
The watchdog urged Ambassador Saidou Maiga to provide explanations about Oulon and other missing journalists during a recent Dakar press conference.
Oulon had exposed alleged embezzlement by a senior military officer, a probe that may have provoked his disappearance.
“Why this silence? If he is accused, let it be made public with a fair trial,” his media outlet demanded, calling for truth and justice.
RSF highlighted at least three other journalists forcibly disappeared between June and July 2024, and three more conscripted into the military since March.
This wave of enforced disappearances and army requisitions marks a unique and troubling chapter in African press repression.
Since Captain Ibrahim Traore’s 2022 coup, Burkina Faso has shut down numerous media outlets, particularly foreign ones, accusing them of undermining the junta’s fight against jihadists.
Human Rights Watch also condemned the conscription of magistrates, underscoring a broader clampdown on civil society and independent voices.
As silence persists, the fate of Oulon and his colleagues haunts Burkina Faso’s fragile democracy and the future of free expression.
