DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — A West African military government operated a clandestine detention center where they imprisoned a well-known newspaper editor along with dozens of other individuals, according to an international press freedom organization that released findings Wednesday.
The group Reporters Without Borders reported that armed personnel in plain clothes seized Atiana Serge Oulon from his residence in June 2024. Oulon serves as editor for the publication L’Evenement. Burkina Faso’s ruling military council subsequently claimed he had been drafted for mandatory military duty.
However, former prisoners told the advocacy organization a different story, stating that Oulon and as many as 40 additional detainees were confined in a heavily secured residence in Ouagadougou, the nation’s capital, through late 2025. These sources described deplorable conditions including sleeping without bedding on concrete floors, being forced to consume water from toilets, and enduring physical abuse from guards using ropes and wooden sticks.
The whereabouts of Oulon remain unclear at this time. The press freedom group indicated they presented their investigation results to Burkina Faso’s leadership, but received no response.
According to the organization, Oulon became a target of the military leadership beginning in 2022 following his publication of a report alleging financial misconduct by an army captain. The group is demanding the journalist’s immediate freedom.
The advocacy organization stated that high-ranking members of the military government appear to be directly overseeing these detentions, with a personal security aide to military leader Capt. Ibrahim Traoré conducting briefings with prisoners before their release and instructing them to remain silent about their experiences.
Following their takeover of the government through a 2022 military coup, Burkina Faso’s ruling council has intensified its suppression of opposition voices and news media, closing independent news organizations and forcing critics into military service to combat extremist groups.
In a report published in April, Human Rights Watch stated that under Traoré’s leadership, the military government has implemented widespread repression that has created “an atmosphere of terror and severely restricting the flow of information.”
