Burkinabe commentator Séré’s sudden return, ‘frail and exhausted’
Missing Burkinabe columnist Kalifara Séré reappeared at his home in Ouagadougou on 11 July. Abducted on 19 June 2024, the authorities had claimed he had been conscripted into the army.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF), relieved that he was able to be reunited with his family, condemns the authorities’ attempts to silence dissenting voices and demands they communicate on the fate and whereabouts of six other journalists who have been forcibly disappeared or conscripted.
Séré returned ‘very frail, exhausted, and weakened, but he is fully conscious … he needs to rest‘, confided a source who was among the first to see the journalist upon his return after more than 380 days of absence
The leading commentator for the private television channel BF1 had not been heard from since 19 June 2024, the date of his hearing by the Higher Council of Communication (CSC). A security source confirmed to Agence France Presse (AFP) that the journalist’s ‘conscription’ had ‘ended’,
Four months after the 70-year-old journalist’s disappearance, on 24 October 2024, the Director General of Human Rights at the Ministry of Justice, Marcel Zongo, announced that Séré, along with Adama Bayala and Serge Oulon, fellow journalists perceived as critical of the authorities, had been conscripted ‘on the basis of the general mobilisation and warning decree’.
The Minister of Communication and government Spokesperson, Pingdwendé Gilbert Ouedraogo, has not yet responded to RSF requests for comment.
‘RSF is relieved to learn that Kalifara Séré, who was clearly forcibly conscripted into the army, has been reunited with his family and loved ones,’ said Sadibou Marong, Director of the RSF Sub-Saharan Africa Desk.
‘Now that the news commentator is free, we call on Burkina Faso’s authorities to decide on the fate of Serge Oulon, Adama Bayala, Alain Traoré and all journalists who have disappeared or are alleged to have been conscripted into the army’
The Editor-in-Chief of the National Languages desk of the private media group Omega Media, Traoré, known as Alain Alain, is also missing. He was abducted from his home at dawn on 13 July 2024 by two armed individuals. The Burkinabe government made no mention of this when it acknowledged the ‘recruitment’ of the other three journalists.
A second group of three journalists suddenly disappeared last March. Guezouma Sanogo, a journalist with Radiodiffusion Télévision du Burkina (RTB) and President of the Burkina Faso Journalists Association (AJB), Boukari Ouoba, an investigative journalist and Vice-President of the AJB, and Luc Pagbelguem, a journalist with BF1, reappeared in a video broadcast on 2 April, wearing military uniform.
They were arrested by men identifying themselves as intelligence officers on 24 March 2025, three days after the first two journalists criticised the country’s deteriorating media landscape.
This article was first published here
