“The video showing detained Burkinabe journalists Guézouma Sanogo, Boukari Ouoba, and Luc Pagbelguem wearing military uniforms reinforces fears about the fate of the seven journalists kidnapped since June 2024, six of whom are now certain to have been forcibly conscripted into the army,” said Moussa Ngom, CPJ’s Francophone Africa representative. “Authorities must stop their efforts to censor the press by forcing journalists into military service and allow them to return to their homes and work.”
In the two-minute video, published by several Burkinabe Facebook accounts since at least Wednesday, Ouoba, Sanogo, and Pagbelguem appear in military uniform in an undisclosed location. Armed men, some in Burkinabe army uniform, stand behind them. A representative of the Association of Burkinabe Journalists (AJB), who requested anonymity for safety reasons, confirmed to CPJ that they are the three journalists who have been missing since they were arrested on March 24 in the capital Ouagadougou.
Sanogo is president of the AJB, and Ouoba is the vice president, while Pagbelguem is a reporter with privately owned TV station BF1.
In the video, Pagbelguem says “the real information on the ground” has “nothing to do with what we hear and often what we see,” while Ouoba adds, “No one can report on the security situation while being in Ouagadougou.” It was unclear if the statements were made under duress.
On March 24, two National Security Council intelligence agents arrested Pagbelguem at his media outlet to “be questioned” about his March 22 report on an AJB meeting where Sanogo criticized the kidnappings of journalists by the authorities. Earlier that day, intelligence agents had arrested Sanogo and Ouoba.
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