Burkina Faso's military junta secretly held and abused a prominent investigative journalist and dozens of others in a makeshift detention facility in the capital, according to an international advocacy group. Reporters Without Borders said Atiana Serge Oulon, editor of the newspaper L’Evenement, was taken from his home in June 2024 by armed men in civilian clothes.
The junta initially claimed Oulon had been conscripted into military service. However, former detainees told the advocacy group that Oulon and up to 40 other people were being held in a heavily guarded house in Ouagadougou as of late 2025. They reported sleeping on bare floors, drinking toilet water, and being beaten with ropes and tree branches.
Oulon's current whereabouts remain unknown. Reporters Without Borders said it had shared its findings with the government, which did not respond. The group noted that Oulon had been targeted since 2022, when he published an investigation accusing an army captain of embezzlement.
The advocacy group alleged that the junta's inner circle was directly involved, with a security officer for junta leader Captain Ibrahim Traoré personally briefing detainees before their release and warning them not to speak out. Since seizing power in a 2022 coup, Burkina Faso's junta has cracked down on dissent, shutting down independent media and forcibly conscripting dissidents.
