“I rose through the ranks!” joked Maixent Somé, an exiled Burkinabè activist and critic of the country's military junta on X yesterday, after learning that his name appears on a list of wanted terrorists.
On April 1, Burkina Faso’s security minister published a list of individuals who are “actively wanted for criminal association in relation to a terrorist enterprise,” and called on the public to provide information on their whereabouts.
Among those wanted are Jafar Dicko, head of the Al-Qaeda-linked Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wa al-Muslimeen, JNIM), which has been fighting Burkina Faso’s armed forces since 2016, and other jihadist leaders such as Dicko Hamadoun, alias “Poulkotou”; Bolly Oumarou Idrissa, alias “Oumi”; and Dicko Hamadou Abou.
But the list also includes prominent critics of the authorities, such as exiled journalists Newton Ahmed Barry and Abdoulaye Barry, as well as exiled activists Naïm Touré; Ouédraogo Aminata, alias “Aminata Raschow”; Coulibaly Oumar; Barry Al Hassane; and Maixent Somé.
Some of these critics had recently denounced a massacre by government-allied militias of civilians around Solenzo, in western Burkina Faso, on March 11. In a March 15 interview Ahmed Barry described the junta led by Ibrahim Traoré as “tyrannical” and explained why he was forced to flee Burkina Faso: “When you don't agree with [the junta], you have the choice between exile, prison, or the front, and therefore death.”
Since taking power in a 2022 coup, military authorities have systematically cracked down on the media, the political opposition, and peaceful dissent, both outside and inside the country. On March 30, gunmen claiming to be gendarmes arrested Miphal Ousmane Lankoandé, executive secretary of the civil society group Balai Citoyen, in Ouagadougou, media and members of the group reported. Lankoandé’s current location is not known, raising concerns that he may have been forcibly disappeared.
Placing exiled journalists and activists on a terrorist list is a blatant attempt to intimidate them and could have a chilling effect on their work. Authorities should immediately remove their names from the list, respect the right to freedom of expression, and stop their crackdown on dissent.