BFA 002 / 0525 / OBS 022
Kidnapping / Enforced disappearance
Burkina Faso
May 2, 2025

The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a partnership between the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), urges immediate action regarding the following situation in Burkina Faso.

Situation overview:

The Observatory has received reports of the kidnapping and enforced disappearance of Mr. Amadou Sawadogo, a regional coordinator for the civic movement Balai citoyen in the Central region, and Mr. Miphal Ousmane Lankoandé, a sociologist and executive secretary of the same movement. Founded on August 25, 2013, Balai citoyen envisions making Burkina Faso “a just and upright society within a democratic rule of law.”

On March 20, 2025, Amadou Sawadogo was summoned to the regional state security service in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, due to his critical posts on Facebook. During interrogation, he was forced to disclose the whereabouts of two other activists who have since gone into hiding. The next day, March 21, 2025, after attending a second summons to the same service, he vanished without any explanation or location disclosed by the authorities.

On March 30, 2025, Miphal Ousmane Lankoandé was abducted around 11:45 AM near his home in the Karpala district of Ouagadougou. The incident occurred shortly after his return from Cotonou, Benin, where he participated in the first edition of the activism school organized from March 24 to 28, 2025, by the Innovation Foundation for Democracy. Armed men claiming to be gendarmes abducted him in front of his wife. Despite repeated inquiries by lawyers to public institutions, no information about his whereabouts has been provided.

As of the publication of this Urgent Appeal, the fate and whereabouts of Amadou Sawadogo and Miphal Ousmane Lankoandé remain unknown, leaving their families and colleagues without news.

The Observatory notes that other members of Balai citoyen have previously faced arrests outside any legal framework. Mr. Guy Hervé Kam, a lawyer and human rights defender, co-founder of Balai citoyen, was arrested on January 24, 2024, at Ouagadougou International Airport by the National Security Service while returning from a professional trip, violating UEMOA regulations on summoning, arresting, or detaining lawyers. He was later released but arrested twice more and is currently arbitrarily detained on charges of “conspiracy and criminal association.” Rasmané Zinaba and Bassirou Badjo, also members of Balai citoyen, were forcibly conscripted into the Burkinabe army on February 20 and 21, 2024, respectively, and remain on the front lines as of this Urgent Appeal’s publication, despite a December 6, 2023, decision by the Ouagadougou Administrative Court suspending their conscription orders.

The Observatory further highlights that military authorities in Burkina Faso are escalating repression against human rights defenders and journalists through targeted abductions. This includes journalists Guezouma Sanogo, president of the Burkinabe Journalists Association (AJB), Boukary Ouoba, vice-president of AJB, and Luc Pagbeguem of the online media BF1, who were kidnapped on March 24, 2025. Other journalists such as Kalifara Sere, administrator and columnist for BF1 (kidnapped June 19, 2024), Serges Oulon, investigative journalist (kidnapped June 24, 2024), and Bayala Adama, columnist (kidnapped June 28, 2024), remain missing as of this publication.

The Observatory emphasizes that these abductions occur amid a broader crackdown on civil society and repression of human rights defenders and journalists in Burkina Faso, particularly those criticizing the military authorities. This repressive climate, exacerbated by government pressure for “patriotic handling of information,” has forced independent media and journalists into self-censorship, as detailed in the Observatory’s February 2025 report “Civic Space and Human Rights Defenders in the Sahel: Regional Convergence of Repression Practices.” The report warns that repression in Burkina Faso has reached alarming levels following the signing of two decrees in November 2022 and April 2023 by the Transition President, allowing the conscription of any physically fit person over 18. Under these decrees, authorities have selectively and discriminatorily resorted to enforced disappearances of human rights defenders and political opponents, followed by their forced conscription into the army. Several defenders have received conscription orders from military command. In this context, the Observatory expresses grave concern over the high risk of forced conscription for Amadou Sawadogo and Miphal Ousmane Lankoandé and strongly opposes it. In March 2024, the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances expressed its concern over “recent allegations of enforced disappearances targeting human rights defenders, journalists, and political opponents” in Burkina Faso and deemed several practices under these decrees “liable to constitute enforced disappearances.”

The Observatory condemns the kidnapping and enforced disappearance of Amadou Sawadogo and Miphal Ousmane Lankoandé, which appear solely intended to punish them for their legitimate human rights activities.

The Observatory urges Burkina Faso’s military authorities to take all necessary measures to immediately reveal the fate and whereabouts of Amadou Sawadogo and Miphal Ousmane Lankoandé, secure their unconditional and immediate release, and ensure a full investigation into their abduction and enforced disappearance.

The Observatory also calls on Burkina Faso’s military authorities to guarantee the rights to freedom of expression and association, as enshrined in international human rights standards, particularly Articles 19 and 22 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and Articles 9 and 10 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.

Required actions:

The Observatory urges you to write to Burkina Faso’s military authorities, demanding they:

1. Ensure the physical safety and psychological well-being of Amadou Sawadogo, Miphal Ousmane Lankoandé, and all human rights defenders in Burkina Faso at all times;
2. Take all necessary steps to reveal the fate and whereabouts of Amadou Sawadogo and Miphal Ousmane Lankoandé, grant them access to their families, and secure their immediate and unconditional release;
3. Immediately cease the systematic practice of enforced disappearances and targeted conscription of human rights defenders and journalists to silence dissent;
4. Put an end to all forms of harassment, including judicial harassment, against Amadou Sawadogo, Miphal Ousmane Lankoandé, and all human rights defenders and journalists in the country, ensuring they can carry out their legitimate human rights activities without fear of retaliation;
5. Uphold fundamental freedoms and ensure strict respect for the right to freedom of expression and association, as guaranteed by international human rights law, particularly Articles 19 and 22 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and Articles 9 and 10 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, to which Burkina Faso is a party.

Addresses:

• Captain Ibrahim Traoré, President of Burkina Faso’s Transition, Twitter: @CapitaineIb22;
• Jean-Emmanuel Ouédraogo, Prime Minister of Burkina Faso, Twitter: @J_E_Ouedraogo;
• Edasso Rodrigue Bayala, Minister of Justice, Human Rights, and Institutional Relations, Keeper of the Seals, Burkina Faso, Email: [email protected];
• Jean Marie Karamoko Traore, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Regional Cooperation, and Burkinabe Abroad, Email: [email protected], Twitter: @JeanMarieTraore;
• National Human Rights Commission of Burkina Faso, Email: [email protected], Twitter: @BurkinaCndhX;
• Sabine Bakyono Kanzie, Permanent Representative of Burkina Faso to the UN Office and other international organizations in Geneva, Email: [email protected] / [email protected];
• M. Oumarou Ganou, Counsellor for Foreign Affairs, Ambassador, Permanent Representative of Burkina Faso to the United Nations in New York, Email: [email protected];
• Permanent Mission of Burkina Faso to the African Union in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Email: [email protected] / [email protected].

Please also write to Burkina Faso’s diplomatic representations in your respective countries.

***
Paris-Geneva, May 2, 2025

Please inform the Observatory of any actions taken using the code of this appeal.

The Observatory, a partnership between the FIDH and OMCT, is dedicated to protecting human rights defenders facing violations and providing them with concrete support. The FIDH and OMCT are members of ProtectDefenders.eu, the European Union’s mechanism for human rights defenders implemented by international civil society.

To contact the Observatory, use the Emergency Line:
· Email: [email protected]
· Phone (FIDH): +33 1 43 55 25 18
· Phone (OMCT): +41 22 809 49 39