Human rights organisations and press freedom watchdogs are demanding answers after credible reports emerged that Burkina Faso’s military junta has been holding a prominent investigative journalist incommunicado for nearly three weeks.
Ibrahim Sori, 42, editor of the independent online outlet Le Patriote Indépendant, was last seen on April 18 when plainclothes security agents reportedly bundled him into an unmarked vehicle outside his home in the capital’s Wemtenga neighbourhood. No arrest warrant has been produced, no charges filed, and the government has refused to confirm or deny his detention.
Amnesty International and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) issued a joint statement Wednesday calling the case “a blatant attempt to muzzle critical reporting on junta corruption and security failures.” Sori’s last published article examined allegations that senior military officers were diverting food aid intended for civilians displaced by jihadist violence in the north.
Junta spokesman Captain Ousmane Traoré dismissed the accusations as “enemy propaganda” during a state television appearance but offered no details on Sori’s whereabouts. “We are fighting a war against terrorists,” he said. “Some journalists prefer to fight on the side of the enemy.”
Sori’s wife, Aïssata, told me in a tearful interview that she has received no official communication since the abduction. “They took him without a word. My children keep asking when Papa is coming home,” she said. Neighbours report hearing screams and the sound of furniture being overturned during the raid.
The case fits a disturbing pattern. Since Captain Ibrahim Traoré seized power in a 2022 coup, Burkina Faso has become one of Africa’s most dangerous countries for journalists. At least nine media workers have been arrested or disappeared in the past 18 months, according to Reporters Without Borders, which ranks Burkina Faso 117th out of 180 countries in its latest press freedom index — a sharp drop since the coup.
Local journalists say self-censorship is now the norm. Several outlets have stopped covering military setbacks against al-Qaeda and Islamic State affiliates, which control large swathes of the country. Sori was one of the few who continued to investigate.
The junta’s crackdown comes as food shortages worsen and civilian casualties from both jihadist attacks and military operations mount. Rights groups accuse the army of extrajudicial killings and forced recruitment — allegations the government denies.
International pressure is mounting. The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights has requested urgent information from Ouagadougou. France, once Burkina’s closest partner, has condemned the detention but stopped short of calling for sanctions given its limited leverage.
Meanwhile, Sori’s colleagues continue publishing under pseudonyms. One anonymous reporter told me: “If they can disappear Ibrahim, they can disappear any of us. But the truth must come out.”
As Burkina Faso’s security crisis deepens, the disappearance of one journalist has become a symbol of a wider assault on free expression under military rule. For now, Ibrahim Sori remains a ghost in the junta’s prisons — unseen, unheard, but far from forgotten.
