Forced disappearances as a tool of repression in west african military regimes

Across Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso and Niger, military regimes are systematically silencing dissent through forced disappearances and unlawful detentions. According to recent findings, these tactics are being deployed with alarming frequency to suppress opposition voices and control civil society.

In Guinea, two prominent activists from the National Front for the Defense of the Constitution—Mamadou Billo Bah and Oumar Sylla (known as Foniké Menguè)—were abducted from Oumar Sylla’s home the day before a major protest against rising living costs and the demand for a return to civilian rule. A released detainee, Mohamed Cissé, reported that the pair were taken by security forces to a detention site in the Loos Islands, near Conakry. The authorities have denied holding them, and their whereabouts remain unknown.

Silencing civil society through fear

Security forces in West Africa’s military-led states are targeting civil society members—journalists, lawyers, activists and human rights defenders—using the same brutal methods. Victims are often snatched in broad daylight, from their homes or workplaces, by armed men claiming or denying state affiliation. Blindfolded and forced into unmarked vehicles, they are held in secret locations for days, weeks or even longer, subjected to interrogations without legal oversight.

This pattern of abuse operates entirely outside the law. No arrest warrants are presented, and authorities either deny involvement or withhold any information about the detainees. Families and legal representatives are left in the dark, sometimes discovering their loved ones were held in informal detention centers, such as security service offices. The goal? To instill fear—not just in the victims, but across society as a whole.

An ever-growing list of the missing and unlawfully detained

In Burkina Faso, human rights lawyer Guy Hervé Kam, co-founder of Balai Citoyen and coordinator of the political movement Sens, was unlawfully detained for five months in 2024. In March 2025, five members of Sens—who had publicly condemned civilian massacres linked to the armed conflict—were abducted by armed men in civilian clothing, reportedly affiliated with security forces. Despite urgent appeals from the movement, the authorities have remained silent on their fate. Four journalists—Serge Oulon, Adama Bayala, Kalifara Séré and Alain Traoré—were also taken in June and July 2024. While the first three were later announced as conscripted into the army under a general mobilization decree, the fourth’s status remains unknown.

In Niger, journalist and blogger Samira Sabou was held incommunicado for a week in September 2023 after her arrest at home. Similarly, Moussa Tchangari, secretary-general of Alternatives Espaces Citoyens, was unlawfully detained, with his lawyers only learning his location two days later, following his transfer to police custody.

Mali has also seen its share of such abuses. In December 2024, Ibrahim Nabi Togola, president of the opposition party New Vision for Mali, was abducted by suspected state security agents and held for 45 days before his release. Meanwhile, journalist Habib Marouane Camara was abducted on December 3, 2024, by armed men identified as gendarmes; his family has had no news since.

Judicial resistance against authoritarian overreach

In many cases, these unlawful detentions culminate in forced transfers to police custody, where victims face fabricated legal proceedings. In Burkina Faso, the situation has escalated further, with detained civil society figures and journalists being forcibly conscripted into the military—sometimes sent to the frontlines against armed groups. This was the fate of Guézouma Sanogo and Boukari Ouoba, president and vice-president of the Burkina Faso Journalists’ Association, who had spoken out against press freedom violations, and journalist Luc Pagbelguem of private channel BF1. Their families were left in the dark for a week after their March 24, 2025 arrest, until a video surfaced showing them in military uniforms.

Despite mounting risks, the judiciary in these countries has shown courage in challenging authoritarian excesses. In Burkina Faso, judges ordered the immediate release of lawyer Guy Hervé Kam. In Guinea, the bar association boycotted court sessions in July 2024, demanding the release of Oumar Sylla and Mamadou Billo Bah. Courts in Mali and Niger have also condemned arbitrary detentions, though such rulings have exposed magistrates to retaliation—including the targeted conscription of at least five Burkinabè judges into the military in 2024 after presiding over sensitive cases.

For justice to prevail, sustained international support is critical. The survival of the rule of law—and the lives of those still missing—depends on it.