URGENT APPEAL – THE OBSERVATORY
The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint initiative between the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), requests your immediate intervention regarding the alarming situation in Burkina Faso.
Details of the situation
Recent reports indicate the abduction and subsequent forced disappearance of two key figures from the “Balai citoyen” movement: Amadou Sawadogo, a regional coordinator, and Miphal Ousmane Lankoandé, a sociologist and the organization’s executive secretary. Founded in 2013, Balai citoyen advocates for a democratic, just, and transparent society in Burkina Faso.
On March 20, 2025, Amadou Sawadogo was summoned by state security services in Ouagadougou. The interrogation focused on his critical social media activity on Facebook. During this session, he was pressured to reveal the locations of other activists. After attending a follow-up summons the next day, March 21, he vanished. Authorities have provided no information regarding his current status or whereabouts.
Similarly, on March 30, 2025, Miphal Ousmane Lankoandé was snatched by armed men identifying as gendarmes outside his home in the Karpala district of Ouagadougou. This occurred shortly after his return from an educational activism program in Cotonou, Bénin. Despite legal efforts to locate him, state institutions remain silent.
A pattern of repression
These events are part of a broader crackdown on dissent. Other members of Balai citoyen have faced similar persecution. Guy Hervé Kam, a prominent lawyer and co-founder of the group, was arrested in early 2024 and remains in detention. Furthermore, activists Rasmané Zinaba and Bassirou Badjo were forcibly conscripted into the military in February 2024, defying court orders that suspended their mobilization.
The military leadership in Burkina Faso has also targeted the press. Journalists such as Guezouma Sanogo, Boukary Ouoba, and Luc Pagbeguem were abducted in late March 2025. Other media professionals, including Kalifara Sere, Serges Oulon, and Bayala Adama, have also been missing for months.
Systemic misuse of military conscription
The Observatory expresses grave concern over the use of mobilization decrees from 2022 and 2023. These laws are being applied selectively to silence human rights defenders and political opponents by forcibly enlisting them as military auxiliaries. The United Nations Committee on Enforced Disappearances has recently highlighted these practices as potentially constituting forced disappearances.
Demanded actions
The Observatory urges the transitional authorities in Burkina Faso to:
- Ensure the safety and psychological health of Amadou Sawadogo, Miphal Ousmane Lankoandé, and all activists in the country.
- Disclose the location of the missing defenders immediately and grant them access to legal counsel and their families.
- Cease the practice of forced disappearances and the targeted conscription of journalists and human rights defenders.
- End all forms of judicial and administrative harassment against those exercising their right to free expression.
- Uphold international human rights standards, specifically the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.
We encourage the international community to write to the transitional leadership, including President Ibrahim Traore and Prime Minister Jean-Emmanuel Ouédraogo, to demand justice and the protection of fundamental freedoms.