Forced into Military Uniform: Burkina Junta’s Shocking Attempt to Silence Journalists
Three high-profile Burkinabé journalists were arrested, paraded in military uniforms, and forcibly conscripted by the junta. A dangerous precedent for press freedom across the Sahel.
VERIEDIT AI 
Imagine being journalist one day and soldier the next. That’s the brutal reality three Burkinabé reporters now face under their country’s military regime.
In late March 2025, the Burkina Faso junta escalated its campaign against press freedom -arresting leading journalists, pressing them into duty, and publicizing them in military garb. This isn’t about national security - it’s a chilling lesson in forced identity erasure.
Disappeared at Gunpoint
On March 24, intelligence agents arrested Guézouma Sanogo, Boukari Ouoba, and Luc Pagbelguem - respectively president, vice president of the Journalists Association, and a BF1 TV reporter - shortly after they spoke out about media restrictions
Uniformed and Unfree
Days later, a two-minute video surfaced online showing the men in military fatigues at an undisclosed base flanked by soldiers. Rights groups say this was forced conscription, not voluntary service .
Junta's Blitz on Media
The missing journalists were just part of a wider purge:
AJB, the country's main Journalists Association, was dissolved immediately afterward
Others - Serge Oulon, Adama Bayala, Kalifara Séré were also abducted & conscripted in 2024
Radio and print outlets have been shuttered or silenced .
Global Outcry
CPJ called for their release, expressing concern at “forced recruitment of journalists”
IFJ/FAJ condemned the erasure of media identity through militarization, declaring the situation “outrageous and historically unprecedented”
The CAJ and continental civil-society groups have joined in demanding immediate action
A Dangerous Precedent
This isn’t defense it’s intimidation. The junta’s merger of state power and weaponization of emergency laws may inspire copycats in Mali, Niger, and beyond.
Should forced conscription of journalists count as kidnapping and war crime?
Will African democracies turn a blind eye or act to stop this?
