In Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso, and Niger, military regimes are actively suppressing any form of criticism against their authority. To mute dissenting voices, defense and security forces are increasingly resorting to enforced disappearances and unlawful detentions, a trend highlighted in the latest annual report from Amnesty International.
A clear illustration of this is the case of two Guinean activists from the National Front for the Defense of the Constitution, a movement advocating for a return to constitutional order. Mamadou Billo Bah and Oumar Sylla, also known as “Foniké Menguè,” have been victims of enforced disappearance since July 9, 2024. They were abducted from Sylla’s home on the eve of a planned protest against the high cost of living and for the restoration of civilian government. According to Mohamed Cissé, another activist arrested with them but released two days later with severe injuries, they were taken by members of the defense and security forces to a detention facility on the Loos archipelago, off the coast of Conakry. The authorities deny holding Mamadou Billo Bah and Oumar Sylla, and their fate remains unknown.
In these lawless situations, victims face the gravest of dangers.
A Strategy to Instill Fear in Civil Society
The defense and security forces under West Africa’s military regimes target civil society members perceived as opponents through enforced disappearances and illegal detentions. The pattern is consistent: journalists, magistrates, lawyers, activists, and human rights defenders are abducted from the street, their homes, or workplaces by armed men, who may or may not identify as state representatives. They are forced into unmarked vehicles, often blindfolded, and then held for days, weeks, or even longer for interrogation.
This entire process operates outside the law, either bypassing or violating all judicial procedures. No arrest warrants are ever presented. The authorities typically deny any involvement or refuse to provide information about the abductees’ fate, leaving families and lawyers with no news. Eventually, it may surface that the individuals were held in informal detention sites, such as security service offices. This uncontrolled ordeal is designed to instill a pervasive fear throughout civil society, as the worst outcomes are possible for the victims.
A Growing Roster of Disappeared and Detained Individuals
The list of victims continues to expand. In Burkina Faso, lawyer Guy Hervé Kam, a co-founder of the Balai Citoyen movement and national coordinator of the Sens political movement, was unlawfully detained for five months in 2024. In March 2025, five other members of the Sens movement’s leadership, which had condemned civilian massacres in the ongoing armed conflict, were abducted by armed men in plain clothes who witnesses said identified themselves as security forces. Authorities have remained silent about their whereabouts despite appeals. Four journalists and commentators—Serge Oulon, Adama Bayala, Kalifara Séré, and Alain Traoré (known as “Alain Alain”)—were abducted in June and July 2024. After providing no information, authorities announced in October 2024 that the first three had been conscripted into the army under a general mobilization decree. The fourth man’s fate is still unknown.
In Niger, the situation of journalist and blogger Samira Sabou was unknown for a week following her arrest at her home in September 2023. Similarly, the lawyers for Moussa Tchangari, secretary-general of the organization Alternatives Espaces Citoyens, only learned of his detention location two days after his arrest when he was transferred to police custody.
In Mali, Ibrahim Nabi Togola, president of the opposition party Nouvelle Vision pour le Mali, was abducted in December 2024 by suspected state security agents; his fate was unknown until his release 45 days later. In Guinea, journalist Habib Marouane Camara was abducted on December 3, 2024, by armed men whom witnesses identified as gendarmes. His loved ones have had no contact with him since.
These abductions frequently conclude with victims being handed over to police to face fabricated charges.
The Judiciary: A Final Bastion for the Rule of Law
Enforced disappearances and illegal detentions often end when the victim is transferred to police custody to initiate a fabricated judicial process. In Burkina Faso, these situations can take an even more dramatic turn: the targeted conscription of the detained person into the army, sometimes to be sent to the front lines against armed groups. This was the fate of several civil society figures and journalists, including Guézouma Sanogo and Boukari Ouoba, president and vice-president of the Association of Journalists of Burkina Faso, who had publicly condemned the escalating attacks on press freedom. Journalist Luc Pagbelguem of the private channel BF1, who reported on their denunciations, met the same fate. Their families had no news for a week after their arrest on March 24, 2025, until a video circulated on social media showing them in military attire.
The justice system must persist in its duty to investigate enforced disappearances.
Amnesty International consistently calls on the authorities in Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso, and Niger to cease these enforced disappearances and unlawful detentions.
In the face of this arbitrary power and the fear among civil society members of being next, the judiciary must also continue to fulfill its role by investigating enforced disappearances, ending illegal detentions, and protecting individual rights.
Several magistrates in Burkina Faso have done so with courage, ordering the immediate release of lawyer Guy Hervé Kam. In July 2024, the Guinea Bar Association demanded the release of Oumar Sylla and Mamadou Billo Bah, boycotting court hearings for several days. Courts in Mali and Niger have also condemned arbitrary detentions. However, these acts have placed justice officials themselves in the authorities’ crosshairs. At least five Burkinabè magistrates were targeted for military conscription in 2024 after handling cases involving the authorities or their supporters.
Despite these unacceptable pressures, the judiciaries in these nations must continue to stand against the illegal actions and authoritarian practices of the military regimes. Enhanced international support for the justice sector in these countries is paramount. The survival of the rule of law, and perhaps the lives of the many people still missing, depends on it.
