The Journalists' Association of Burkina Faso (AJB) said on Facebook that its president Guezouma Sanogo and deputy president Boukari Ouoba were detained at a national press centre in the capital Ouagadougou and taken to an unknown destination.
In remarks to the association’s congress on Friday, Sanogo criticised “attacks on the freedom of expression and the press”, saying they had “reached an unprecedented level”.
Media rights group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) demanded the authorities “make known where they are detained” and “release them without delay”, in a statement sent to AFP.
Also Monday, a third journalist, Luc Pagbelguem of the private television channel BF1, was taken “by agents of the national security council” who wanted “only to interview him” about a report on the AJB congress, the broadcaster said.
The group, SENS, had criticised videos posted on social media over the past week showing dozens of bloodied bodies with hands and feet bound, many of them appearing to be women, children or elderly.
Burkinabe authorities have denied the accusations of mass killings by soldiers and allied militias.
RSF said in its statement on Monday that the arrests were “part of a strategy aiming to systematically silence all critical voices in the country”.
In the past decade, Burkina Faso has been caught up in a spiral of violence blamed on jihadists that has spilt over from neighbouring Mali and Niger and since spread beyond the three countries' borders.
The non-government group ACLED, which researches victims of conflicts, estimates that jihadist violence in the country has killed more than 26,000 people, half of them since the junta took over.
In May 2024 he passed a charter that authorises him to hold power for a further five years.
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