Prosecutor Investigates Authors of Statement as Crackdown on Dissent Deepens
The Burkina Faso junta's suspension of the country's largest student union is the latest in a series of government crackdowns on freedoms of association and expression.
On May 26, the minister of territorial administration signed a decree suspending the activities of the General Union for Burkina Students (L'union générale des étudiants burkinabè, UGEB) for a renewable period of three months on allegations of "glorification of terrorism."
Founded in 1960, UGEB is one of Burkina Faso's oldest and most influential student organizations. It has long advocated for improved living and study conditions for students, while also playing a prominent role in democratic mobilization, civic activism, and resistance to authoritarian rule, Over the decades, UGEB has become an important voice in broader struggles for accountability and social justice.
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The government decree provided no explanation for the suspension, though it appears linked to a statement issued by the student union criticizing the junta for failing to restore security nearly four years after taking power, despite receiving "excessively publicized consignments of military equipment."
The day the decree was issued, a prosecutor in the capital, Ouagadougou, announced the opening of an investigation "against the author or authors as well as any potential accomplices," of the UGEB statement, which he said, "constitutes violations of criminal law, notably the glorification of terrorism."
A Burkinabè human rights activist living in exile said the investigation highlighted the threat to the rule of law in Burkina Faso, with judicial authorities "increasingly subordinated to the junta's political and security agenda."
Repression by Burkina Faso's military authorities has resulted in a rapidly shrinking civic space. Since seizing power in a 2022 coup, the junta has suspended independent media outlets, dismantled civil society organizations, restricted political pluralism, and pursued critics through intimidation and judicial harassment. Journalists, opposition figures, civil society activists, and judges have faced, threats, arbitrary detention, unlawful conscription, enforced disappearances, and torture.
Silencing students will not address Burkina Faso's worsening security and governance crisis, including expanded attacks by an Islamist insurgency. The Burkinabè authorities should immediately lift the suspension of UGEB and end their oppression of independent voices and fundamental freedoms.
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Ilaria Allegrozzi, Senior Sahel Researcher
