Enforced disappearances of human rights defenders in Burkina Faso

Burkina Faso map illustration — ©Balai citoyen

URGENT APPEAL – OBSERVATORY

BFA 002 / 0525 / OBS 022
Enforced disappearance
Burkina Faso
May 2, 2025

The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a partnership between the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), urges immediate intervention regarding the following situation in Burkina Faso.

Situation overview:

The Observatory has received reports of the abduction and enforced disappearance of Amadou Sawadogo, a regional coordinator for the civic movement Balai citoyen in the Central region, and Miphal Ousmane Lankoandé, a sociologist and executive secretary of the same movement. Founded on August 25, 2013, Balai citoyen advocates for a “just and upright Burkina Faso within a democratic state governed by the rule of law.”

On March 20, 2025, Amadou Sawadogo was summoned to the regional office of the State Security Service in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso’s capital. He was questioned about his critical social media posts on Facebook and coerced into revealing the addresses of two other activists who have since gone into hiding. The following day, March 21, 2025, after attending a second summons to the same office, he vanished without any explanation or location disclosed by the authorities.

On March 30, 2025, Miphal Ousmane Lankoandé was abducted around 11:45 AM outside his home in the Karpala neighborhood of Ouagadougou. The incident occurred shortly after his return from Cotonou, Benin, where he participated in the first edition of the activism school organized from March 24 to 28, 2025, by the Innovation Foundation for Democracy. Armed men claiming to be gendarmes abducted him in front of his wife. Despite repeated inquiries by lawyers to public institutions, no information about his whereabouts has been provided.

As of this urgent appeal’s publication, the fate and location of Amadou Sawadogo and Miphal Ousmane Lankoandé remain unknown, leaving their families and colleagues without any news.

The Observatory notes that other members of Balai citoyen have previously faced arrests outside any legal framework. Guy Hervé Kam, a human rights lawyer and co-founder of Balai citoyen, was arrested on January 24, 2024, at Ouagadougou International Airport by the National Security Service while returning from a professional trip, violating provisions of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) regarding the summoning, arrest, or detention of lawyers. He was later released, only to be arrested twice more and is currently arbitrarily detained on charges of “conspiracy and criminal association.” Balai citoyen members Rasmané Zinaba and Bassirou Badjo were forcibly conscripted into the Burkinabe army on February 20 and 21, 2024, respectively, and remain on the front lines as of this urgent appeal’s publication, despite a December 6, 2023, ruling by the Ouagadougou Administrative Tribunal ordering the suspension of their conscription orders.

The Observatory further highlights that military authorities in power in Burkina Faso have intensified repression against human rights defenders and journalists through targeted abductions. This includes journalists Guezouma Sanogo, president of the Burkinabe Journalists Association (AJB), Boukary Ouoba, AJB vice-president, and Luc Pagbeguem of the online media BF1, who were abducted on March 24, 2025. Other journalists such as Kalifara Sere, administrator and columnist for BF1 (abducted June 19, 2024), Serges Oulon, investigative journalist (abducted June 24, 2024), and Bayala Adama, columnist (abducted June 28, 2024), also remain missing.

The Observatory emphasizes that these abductions are part of a broader crackdown on civil society and repression of human rights defenders and journalists in Burkina Faso, particularly those criticizing the military authorities. This repressive climate, exacerbated by government pressure for “patriotic treatment of information,” has forced independent media and journalists into self-censorship, as detailed in the February 2025 report by the Observatory titled “Civic Space and Human Rights Defenders in the Sahel: Regional Convergence of Repressive Practices.” The report underscores the alarming escalation of repression in Burkina Faso following the signing of two decrees in November 2022 and April 2023 by the Transition President, allowing the conscription of any physically fit person over 18. Under these decrees, authorities have selectively and discriminatorily resorted to abduction, enforced disappearance, and forced conscription of human rights defenders and political opponents into auxiliary military roles. Several defenders have received conscription orders from military command. In this context, the Observatory expresses grave concern over the heightened risk of forced conscription for Amadou Sawadogo and Miphal Ousmane Lankoandé and strongly opposes it. In March 2024, the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances expressed its “concern over recent allegations of enforced disappearances targeting human rights defenders, journalists, and political opponents” in Burkina Faso and deemed several practices under these decrees as “liable to constitute enforced disappearances.”

The Observatory condemns the abduction and enforced disappearance of Amadou Sawadogo and Miphal Ousmane Lankoandé, which appear to be solely intended to punish them for their legitimate human rights activities.

The Observatory urges Burkina Faso’s military authorities to take all necessary measures to reveal the fate and whereabouts of Amadou Sawadogo and Miphal Ousmane Lankoandé, ensure their immediate and unconditional release, and fully investigate their abduction and enforced disappearance.

The Observatory also calls on Burkina Faso’s military authorities to uphold the rights to freedom of expression and association, as enshrined in international human rights standards, particularly Articles 19 and 22 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and Articles 9 and 10 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.

Required actions:

The Observatory urges you to write to Burkina Faso’s current military authorities, demanding that they:

Ensure the physical integrity and psychological well-being of Amadou Sawadogo, Miphal Ousmane Lankoandé, and all human rights defenders in Burkina Faso at all times;
Take all necessary steps to reveal the fate and whereabouts of Amadou Sawadogo and Miphal Ousmane Lankoandé, grant them access to their families, and secure their immediate and unconditional release;
Immediately cease the systematic practice of enforced disappearances and the targeted conscription of human rights defenders and journalists to silence dissent;
End all forms of harassment, including judicial harassment, against Amadou Sawadogo, Miphal Ousmane Lankoandé, and all human rights defenders and journalists in the country, ensuring they can carry out their legitimate human rights activities without hindrance or fear of reprisals;
Uphold fundamental freedoms, particularly guaranteeing freedom of expression and association in all circumstances, in line with international human rights law, especially Articles 19 and 22 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and Articles 9 and 10 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, to which Burkina Faso is a party.

Addresses:

Captain Ibrahim Traoré, President of Burkina Faso’s Transition, Twitter: @CapitaineIb22
Jean-Emmanuel Ouédraogo, Prime Minister of Burkina Faso, Twitter: @J_E_Ouedraogo
Edasso Rodrigue Bayala, Minister of Justice, Human Rights, and Institutional Relations, Keeper of the Seals of Burkina Faso, Email: [email protected]
Jean Marie Karamoko Traore, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Regional Cooperation, and Burkinabè Abroad, Email: [email protected], Twitter: @JeanMarieTraore
National Human Rights Commission of Burkina Faso, Email: [email protected], Twitter: @BurkinaCndhX
H.E. Sabine Bakyono Kanzie, Permanent Mission of Burkina Faso to the United Nations Office and other international organizations in Geneva, Email: [email protected] / [email protected]
Oumarou Ganou, Advisor on Foreign Affairs, Ambassador, Permanent Representative of Burkina Faso to the United Nations in New York (United States), Email: [email protected]
Permanent Mission of Burkina Faso to the African Union in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Email: [email protected] / [email protected]

Please also write to Burkina Faso’s diplomatic missions in your respective countries.

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Paris-Geneva, May 2, 2025

Please inform the Observatory of any actions taken by referencing the code of this appeal.

The Observatory, a partnership between FIDH and OMCT, is dedicated to protecting human rights defenders facing violations and providing them with concrete support. FIDH and OMCT are members of ProtectDefenders.eu, the European Union’s mechanism for human rights defenders implemented by international civil society.

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