Burkina Faso: Four journalists released from forced enlistment into the army

Guezouma Sanogo, President of the Association des journalistes Burkinabe (AJB), and Phil Ronald Zongo, journalist at the Femina FM Radio Station, were released on 21 July from forced military conscription. They were abducted in March 2025 and had been forcibly enlisted into the army since then. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and the Federation of African Journalists (FAJ), the pan-African organisation of the IFJ, welcome their release and call on the military junta in Burkina Faso to halt the unlawful conscription of journalists, activists and critics.

Chief of Staff of the Burkina Faso's Armed Forces David Kabre (L) speaks to Burkina soldiers during the annual US-led Flintlock military training organised by the International Counter-Terrorism Academy in Jacqueville, on March 14, 2023. Credit: Issouf Sanogo / AFP.

On 17 July Boukari Ouba, Vice President of the ABJ, and Luc Pagbelguem, a journalist with the independent TV station BF1, were also released. All four journalists have now been reunited with their families.

The IFJ and the FAJ had been campaigningfor the release of these journalists since their abduction.

IFJ General Secretary Anthony Bellanger welcomed their release, while condemning the unlawful practices of the military junta aimed at silencing journalists and critics: "We have been consistent and persistent in our demand for the release of our colleagues, based on the conviction that journalists must never be arrested for doing their work. Freedom of expression, media freedom as well as the citizens' right to seek and receive information must be upheld. The very essence of life depends on people's ability to express their views on how they are being governed."

The IFJ and FAJ call on the military junta in Burkina Faso to uphold freedom of expression and media freedom, and to allow the media to perform its duties without intimidation or hindrance.