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September 17, 2025 – Burkina Faso –
After nearly 14 months in enforced military service, Burkinabe journalists Adama Bayala and Alain Traoré have been released and reunited with their families on 17 September 2025. Bayala, a columnist for private TV station BF1, and Traoré, known as “Alain Alain,” the editor-in-chief of Radio Omega’s national languages bureau, were abducted on 28 June and 13 July 2024, respectively.
Their disappearance sparked concerns among press freedom advocates, who maintained that both were forcibly conscripted into the armed forces. While Bayala’s conscription was formally acknowledged by the Justice Ministry in October 2024, little official information had been disclosed about Traoré’s status until their recent release.
RSF (Reporters Without Borders) reports that both are now home and in “good health and spirits,” though Bayala is “weakened,” likely due to the prolonged period away and the conditions of forced service.
Their release follows previous freed journalists, including Guezouma Sanogo, Phil Roland Zongo, Kalifara Séré, Boukari Ouoba, and Luc Pagbelguem, who were also conscripted under similar circumstances.
However, one journalist remains unaccounted for: Atiana Serge Oulon, editor of the newspaper L’Événement. Although activists announced his release in July 2025, he has yet to reappear or reunite with his family. RSF is pressing Burkina Faso’s authorities to provide clarity on Oulon’s status and to ensure his immediate release.
RSF’s Director for Sub-Saharan Africa, Sadibou Marong, called the conscriptions “arbitrary” and emphasized that journalists should not be targeted under general mobilisation decrees simply for doing their work. The organisation urged that although forced conscription may be legal under the government’s mobilisation rules, it should never be used to silence or remove journalists from their duty.
This development is seen as a partial victory for press freedom in Burkina Faso, though the unresolved case of Atiana Serge Oulon underscores continuing risks faced by media workers in contexts of political instability and military authority.
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