Burkina Faso has suspended the broadcast of a number of Western and African media because of the coverage of a report by "Human Rights Watch" in which the army is accused of extrajudicial killings and sentence, Reuters and AFP reported, citing BTA, citing a statement from the Communications Council.
This decision follows similar measures against BBC Africa and Voice of America, also for their coverage of the human rights organization's investigation into the execution of 223 villagers by the military in Burkina Faso in February as part of a campaign against civilians. , accused of collaborating with jihadist fighters.
The communications council of the junta-led West African country said broadcasts of French television network TV5 Monde would be suspended for two weeks and access to its website blocked. The websites of the German television "Deutsche Welle", the French newspapers "Mond" and "West France", on the British v. "Guardian" and African agencies APA and Ecofin are blocked until further notice, according to the same source.
There is currently no comment from the affected media.
On Saturday, government spokesman in Ouagadougou Rimtalba Jean-Emmanuel Ouedraogo rejected Human Rights Watch's claims, calling them "highbrow". He denied that the authorities were unwilling to investigate the alleged atrocities.
"The murders led to the opening of a judicial investigation," he stressed, citing a statement by a regional prosecutor on March 1.
Violence in the region, fueled by a decade-long struggle with Islamist groups linked to al Qaeda and the Islamic State group, has worsened since a series of military coups in the region from 2020 to 2023. According to the US-based monitoring group ACLED crises in 2023 Burkina Faso has seen a serious escalation of violence, with reports of over 8,000 deaths.