Burkina Faso Bans Foreign Media Outlets Over 'Baseless' Claims

By Al Mayadeen English

29 Apr 2024 

Burkina Faso's communications authority reveals that it has taken action to temporarily suspend numerous Western and African media organizations.

Burkina Faso's communications authority announced on Sunday that it has temporarily halted several Western and African media outlets for reporting on a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report alleging the army's involvement in extrajudicial killings.

"The media campaign orchestrated around these accusations fully shows the unavowed intention ... to discredit our fighting forces," according to Burkina Faso's statement.

Several prominent Western and African media outlets, including Le Monde, The Guardian, Deutsche Welle, TV5 Monde, Ouest-France, APAnews, and Agence Ecofin, have been suspended by Burkina Faso's communications authority.

This action follows their coverage of a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report alleging the involvement of the Burkinabe army in extrajudicial killings.

Earlier in the week, the country's military rulers dismissed HRW's claims, calling them "baseless", especially since the government has initiated a legal inquiry into the alleged incidents, expressing surprise at HRW's conclusions before the investigation's completion.

The Communications Minister, Rimtalba Jean Emmanuel Ouedraogo, expressed his surprise that "while this inquiry is underway to establish the facts and identify the authors, HRW has been able, with boundless imagination, to identify 'the guilty' and pronounce its verdict."

HRW has described the reported massacre as one of the worst army abuses in Burkina Faso since 2015, suggesting a widespread military campaign against civilians suspected of collaborating with militant groups, which HRW contends may constitute crimes against humanity.

However, Ouedraogo emphasized ongoing efforts to establish facts and identify those responsible for the attacks.

Since 2022, Burkina Faso, in West Africa, has been under military rule, a response to an insurgency that originated in neighboring Mali in 2015. The country has suffered significant casualties, with thousands of civilians, soldiers, and police officers losing their lives, and two million individuals forced to flee their residences. The escalating death toll has fueled discontent within the military, leading to two coups in 2022.