URGENT APPEAL – THE OBSERVATORY
BFA 002 / 0525 / OBS 022
Enforced disappearance
Burkina Faso
May 2, 2025
The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a partnership of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), urges intervention regarding the following situation in Burkina Faso.
Situation overview:
The Observatory has been informed of the abduction and enforced disappearance of Mr. Amadou Sawadogo, a central region coordinator of the civic movement Balai citoyen, and Mr. Miphal Ousmane Lankoandé, sociologist and executive secretary of the same movement. Founded on August 25, 2013, Balai citoyen envisions a “just and honorable Burkina Faso within a democratic state based on the rule of law.”
On March 20, 2025, Amadou Sawadogo was summoned to the regional state security service in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso’s capital. He was questioned due to his critical social media posts on Facebook and forced to disclose the whereabouts of two other activists who have since gone into hiding. The following day, March 21, 2025, after attending a second summons at the same service, he vanished without any explanation or information about his whereabouts provided by the authorities.
On March 30, 2025, Miphal Ousmane Lankoandé was abducted around 11:45 AM outside his home in the Karpala neighborhood of Ouagadougou. The incident occurred shortly after his return from Cotonou, Benin, where he participated in the first edition of the Activism School (March 24–28, 2025) organized by the Innovation for Democracy Foundation. Armed men identifying themselves as gendarmes seized him in front of his wife. Despite repeated efforts by lawyers to obtain information from public institutions, no details about his whereabouts have been disclosed.
As of the publication of this Urgent Appeal, the fate and whereabouts of Amadou Sawadogo and Miphal Ousmane Lankoandé remain unknown. Their families and colleagues have received no updates.
The Observatory highlights that other Balai citoyen members have previously faced arbitrary arrests. For instance, Mr. Guy Hervé Kam, a human rights lawyer and co-founder of Balai citoyen, was arrested on January 24, 2024, at Ouagadougou International Airport upon returning from a professional trip. His detention violated UEMOA regulations governing the summoning, arrest, or detention of lawyers. He was later released before being re-arrested twice and is currently detained arbitrarily on charges of “conspiracy and criminal association.” Additionally, Balai citoyen members Rasmané Zinaba and Bassirou Badjo were forcibly conscripted into the Burkinabé army on February 20 and 21, 2024, respectively, and remain on the front lines as of this publication—despite a December 6, 2023, ruling by the Ouagadougou Administrative Court suspending their conscription orders.
The Observatory also notes that military authorities in Burkina Faso have intensified repression against human rights defenders and journalists through targeted abductions. Recent cases include the abduction of journalists Guezouma Sanogo (President of the Association of Journalists of Burkina Faso), Boukary Ouoba (Vice President of the AJB), and Luc Pagbeguem (BF1 online media) on March 24, 2025, as well as Kalifara Sere (BF1 administrator and columnist, abducted June 19, 2024), Serges Oulon (investigative journalist, abducted June 24, 2024), and Bayala Adama (columnist, abducted June 28, 2024). All remain missing as of this publication.
The Observatory emphasizes that these abductions are part of a broader crackdown on civil society and suppression of human rights defenders and journalists in Burkina Faso—particularly those criticizing the military authorities’ failures. This repressive climate, exacerbated by government pressure to enforce a “patriotic approach to information,” has pushed independent media and journalists toward self-censorship, as detailed in the February 2025 report “Civic Space and Human Rights Defenders in the Sahel: Regional Convergence of Repression Practices.” The report underscores that repression in Burkina Faso has escalated alarmingly following the November 2022 and April 2023 decrees signed by the Transition President, enabling the conscription of any physically able person over 18. Authorities have since selectively and discriminatorily used enforced disappearances to silence dissent, forcibly conscripting human rights defenders and political opponents into military service. Several defenders have received conscription orders from military command.
In this context, the Observatory expresses grave concern over the high risk of forced conscription faced by Amadou Sawadogo and Miphal Ousmane Lankoandé and firmly opposes such measures. In March 2024, the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances expressed concern over “recent allegations of enforced disappearances targeting human rights defenders, journalists, and political opponents” in Burkina Faso, deeming several practices under the decrees as “liable to constitute enforced disappearances.”
The Observatory condemns the abduction and enforced disappearance of Amadou Sawadogo and Miphal Ousmane Lankoandé, which appear intended solely to punish them for their legitimate human rights work.
The Observatory urges Burkina Faso’s military authorities to:
- Ensure the physical and psychological safety of Amadou Sawadogo, Miphal Ousmane Lankoandé, and all human rights defenders in Burkina Faso;
- 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;
- Cease the systematic practice of enforced disappearances and targeted conscription of human rights defenders and journalists to silence dissent;
- End all harassment—including judicial persecution—against Amadou Sawadogo, Miphal Ousmane Lankoandé, and all human rights defenders and journalists, ensuring they can carry out their legitimate work without fear of retaliation;
- Uphold fundamental freedoms, particularly freedom of expression and association, as guaranteed by international human rights law, including 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 for appeals:
- Captain Ibrahim Traoré, President of the Transition in Burkina Faso, Twitter: @CapitaineIb22
- Jean-Emmanuel Ouédraogo, Prime Minister of Burkina Faso, Twitter: @J_E_Ouedraogo
- Edasso Rodrigue Bayala, Minister of Justice, Human Rights, and Relations with Institutions, Keeper of the Seals of Burkina Faso, Email: [email protected]
- Jean Marie Karamoko Traoré, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Regional Cooperation, and Burkinabè Abroad, Email: [email protected], Twitter: @JeanMarieTraore
- National Human Rights Commission of Burkina Faso, Email: [email protected], Twitter: @BurkinaCndhX
- Ambassador Sabine Bakyono Kanzie, Permanent Mission of Burkina Faso to the UN and International Organizations in Geneva, Email: [email protected]
- Oumarou Ganou, Advisor on Foreign Affairs and Permanent Representative of Burkina Faso to the UN in New York, Email: [email protected]
- Permanent Mission of Burkina Faso to the African Union in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Email: [email protected]
Please also write to diplomatic missions of Burkina Faso in your respective countries.
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The Observatory, a partnership between FIDH and OMCT, is dedicated to protecting human rights defenders facing violations and supporting them concretely. FIDH and OMCT are members of ProtectDefenders.eu, the EU’s mechanism implemented by international civil society for human rights defenders.
To contact the Observatory, use the Emergency Line:
• Email: [email protected]
• FIDH Phone: +33 1 43 55 25 18
• OMCT Phone: +41 22 809 49 39
