Burkina Faso has suspended several international news organizations, some of them for an indefinite period, according to a statement from communications regulator the CSC on Sunday, April 28. Among those named in the latest order are French newspaper Le Monde, British publication The Guardian, German broadcaster Deutsche Welle and French broadcaster TV5 Monde.
They were suspended for reporting on a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report that accused the army of attacks on civilians in its battle against jihadists.
The other news media named in the latest statement were French regional newspaper Ouest-France, APAnews, and Agence Ecofin. Already on Thursday, the CSC announced it had directed internet service providers to suspend access to the BBC, VOA, and Human Rights Watch from Burkinabe territory for two weeks.
Military-ruled Burkina Faso has rejected as "baseless accusations" a Human Rights Watch report that soldiers killed at least 223 villagers in two attacks on February 25. "The government of Burkina Faso strongly rejects and condemns such baseless accusations," communications minister Rimtalba Jean Emmanuel Ouédraogo said in a statement late on Saturday. "The killings at Nodin and Soro led to the opening of a legal inquiry," he said.
The minister expressed his surprise that "while this inquiry is underway to establish the facts and identify the authors, HRW has been able, with boundless imagination, to identify 'the guilty' and pronounce its verdict".
HRW described the massacre as "among the worst army abuse in Burkina Faso since 2015".