Kidnapped, killed or silenced: Africa's journalists increasingly under threat

Kidnapped, Killed, or Silenced: Africa's Journalists Under Threat

Across Africa, journalists face increasing dangers including kidnapping, torture, and murder. Often, those responsible are known but escape accountability. Investigations by RFI and press freedom groups reveal that such attacks are becoming widespread, from Burkina Faso to Guinea and the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

Journalists who resist government or militant pressures are either silenced or forced to flee their countries. In Burkina Faso, the respected investigative journalist and editor of L'Evènement, Serge Oulon, disappeared on 24 June 2024 after an armed group broke into his home. In the months that followed, about a dozen other journalists suffered similar abductions.

Oulon's face appeared on the cover of the last published edition of L'Evènement in July 2024, as if the newspaper is waiting for its editor to return before continuing publication.

Security forces have also repeatedly broken into the Norbert Zongo National Press Centre in Ouagadougou, named after a journalist murdered in 1998 who remains a symbol of press freedom in West Africa.

Captain Ibrahim Traoré, who took power in Burkina Faso through a coup in late 2022, no longer tolerates dissenting voices, further endangering media freedom.

Summary

Journalists across Africa are increasingly targeted and silenced with impunity, highlighting a severe crisis for press freedom under authoritarian and militant threats.

Radio France Internationale — 2025-11-06

Kidnapped, Killed, or Silenced: Africa's Journalists Under Threat

Summary

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