The Superior Council of Communication (CSC) of Burkina Faso announced on Sunday that it had further suspended multiple international news outlets which covered a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report accusing the country’s military of civilian casualties. According to the CSC’s statement, TV5 programs will be put on a two-week pause, whereas the availability of websites like TV5 Monde, Deutsche Welle, West-France, Le Monde.fr, ApaNews, The Guardian and AgenceEcofin will be suspended indefinitely until further notice.
The reason presented by the CSC for these suspensions revolves around accusations made by these platforms regarding the actions of the Burkinabè army on civilian populations in northern and north-eastern Burkina Faso. This move follows a similar decision last Thursday to suspend the Voice of America (VOA) and BBC/Africa programs for related causes.
The mentioned HRW report, published last Thursday, claimed that the Burkinabè military forces carried out execution-style killings of at least 233 civilians in a pair of village attacks. These terrible attacks were characterized as some of the worst army abuses in Burkina Faso since 2015 and could amount to crimes against humanity.
Following the suspension of its services, VOA expressed its concern about the restrictions and stood by its coverage of events in Burkina Faso. Simultaneously, a BBC/Africa spokesperson stated that the suspension lowered BBC’s ability to provide audiences with independent and accurate news.
Reporters Without Borders, an international NGO, also denounced Burkina Faso’s move to suspend the media services on Monday and appealed for the government to overturn its decisions.
For some context, Burkina Faso, along with neighboring Mali and Niger, are battling Islamist insurgencies. Burkina Faso fell under military rule after a successful coup d’état in October 2022, leading to continued terror campaigns across the territory that insurgents mostly control. Last year, HRW noted an escalation in human rights violations and a humanitarian crisis in Burkina Faso in the aftermath of the coup.