Investigative journalist secretly detained for nearly two years in Burkina Faso
Mariem Bah
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) published a report alleging that investigative journalist Atiana Serge Oulon has been secretly detained since June 2024 in a villa turned into a prison in Ouagadougou, contradicting the military government's claim of conscription. RSF reports that detainees faced threats of execution, beatings, and starvation, and urged the immediate release of Oulon, who had angered the junta with his corruption exposés. The junta has increasingly cracked down on dissent, banning political parties and civil-society groups while fighting Islamist insurgencies.
According to a report published on May 7 by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), veteran investigative journalist Atiana Serge Oulon was abducted from his home in the capital Ouagadougou on June 24, 2024, by about ten armed men in civilian clothes. Burkina Faso's military government later claimed Oulon, the publishing director of the newspaper L’Evenement, had been conscripted.
However, RSF says its investigation found that at least until late 2025, Oulon was ‘detained, arrested and subjected to violence’ in a villa in the capital that had been turned into a secret prison holding dozens of people.
‘This secret detention contradicts the government’s explanation,’ RSF stressed, calling the ‘forced conscription’ claim ‘a smokescreen to conceal the journalist’s imprisonment.’
The press-freedom group alleged that inmates at the heavily guarded house faced threats of execution, gratuitous violence — including beatings with tree branches used as whips — and food shortages. ‘We slept directly on the floor, wearing the same clothes for months. We drank water from the toilet,’ a former detainee told RSF.
RSF demanded Oulon’s immediate release, noting he had been in the military government’s sights since 2022, when he exposed a senior army officer for embezzlement. The advocacy group said the communications minister did not respond to their requests for comment. The government did not immediately react to the RSF report.
In April, Captain Ibrahim Traore — who seized power in a 2022 coup — told journalists that ‘everyone is free to say what they want and express their opinions.’ Also in April, the junta banned more than 100 civil-society associations and organizations, after dissolving all political parties. Human-rights groups accuse the government of cracking down on dissent and shrinking civic space, including curbing press freedom and forcibly conscripting critics to fight armed groups.
Burkina Faso is mired in a security crisis across the western Sahel region, including a years-long war with armed groups linked to al-Qaeda and ISIL (ISIS). The government has accused internationally funded NGOs of ‘espionage and betrayal.’
