Burkina Faso’s communications authority has announced the suspension of several Western and African media outlets due to their coverage of a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report alleging the army’s involvement in extrajudicial killings.
This action comes after the suspension of BBC Africa and the U.S.-funded Voice of America for their reporting on the HRW investigation, which claimed that the Burkinabe military executed about 223 villagers in February, Reuters reported.
The country announced the suspension of French television network TV5Monde’s broadcasts for two weeks, along with blocking access to its website.
The junta-led country also stressed that the websites of German broadcaster Deutsche Welle, French newspapers Le Monde and Ouest-France, British newspaper The Guardian, and African agencies APA and Ecofin have been blocked until further notice.
What the government is saying
Burkinabe government spokesperson Rimtalba Jean Emmanuel Ouedraogo rejected HRW’s allegations on Saturday, describing them as “peremptory.”
He also denied the accusation that the authorities were unwilling to investigate the alleged atrocities.
“The killings … have led to the opening of a judicial investigation,” Ouedraogo said, citing a March 1 statement by a regional prosecutor.
Violence in the region, fueled by a decade-long conflict with Islamist groups associated with al Qaeda and Islamic State, has intensified since the respective militaries seized power in Burkina Faso and neighbouring Mali and Niger through a series of coups between 2020 and 2023.
Burkina Faso experienced a surge in deadly attacks in 2023, which has resulted in the reported death of over 8,000 people, as documented by the U.S.-based crisis-monitoring group ACLED.
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