Criticize this African country’s military and you might be drafted
On a Friday earlier this month, just as Dr. Daouda Diallo left the passport office in the capital of the West African country Burkina Faso, Four men grabbed him from the streetpushed him into a car and drove away.
Dr. Diallo, a pharmacist turned rights activist who had recently been one awarded a prestigious prize for human rights workhas not been heard from since that day, December 1.
But four days later, a photo of Dr. was posted on social media. Diallo, 41, wearing a helmet and holding a Kalashnikov rifle, seemingly confirming the fears of his family and colleagues that he had been forcibly conscripted into the army. Dr. Diallo and a dozen other people active in public life were informed by security forces in November that they would soon be called in to help the government secure the country, international and local rights groups said.
Then, on Christmas Eve, two men in plain clothes rang the doorbell of Ablassé Ouedraogo, a former foreign minister and opposition leader. He was taken away and his whereabouts remain unknown, according to Faso Autrement, his political party.
Burkina Faso, a previously stable country of 20 million people, has been torn apart over the past eight years by violence from extremist groups loosely linked to Al Qaeda and Islamic State.
In the ensuing chaos, the country suffered two coups in just 10 months, the second last year by a military junta that vowed to contain militant groups by any means necessary.
According to human rights groups and lawyers, Dr. Diallo and Mr Ouedraogo to at least fifteen people who have recently disappeared or been forcibly drafted. The list includes journalists, civil society activists, an anesthetist and an imam, all of whom have criticized the junta for its inability to defeat the insurgents, and for abuses against the population it is meant to protect.
The military government, led by 35-year-old Captain Ibrahim Traoré, has failed to deliver on its promise to restore stability. Violence has increased under his rule, diplomats, aid workers and analysts say. Burkina Faso has become the focal point of the crisis in the Sahel region, a vast swath of land south of the Sahara that has been rocked by extremist uprisings and military coups.
About half of the country’s territory is now outside government control. According to the United Nations and aid agencies, nearly five million people need humanitarian assistance, and more than two million have lost their homes and belongings. Local and international aid groups have accused both the extremists and government-affiliated forces of massacring civilians.
“Burkina Faso is the epicenter of security problems in West Africa,” Emanuela Del Re, the European Union’s special representative in the Sahel, said in an interview. “The situation is desperate and the population is paying the price.”
Burkina Faso, a former French colony, does for a long time dependent on the support of French troops to fight the insurgency. But after last year’s coup, Captain Traoré vowed to cut all ties with France, seen as a neo-colonial power that has failed to contain extremists. Hundreds of French troops withdrew from the country earlier this year, and the government has instead tried to forge an alliance with Russia, leading to speculation that the Kremlin-backed Wagner Group could start operating in the country.
Faced with a lack of resources, the military-led government issued a broad appeal for civilians to join the volunteer armed forces, promising them a stipend and two weeks of military training. It also announced an emergency “general mobilization” law, which gave the president sweeping powers, including recruiting people, requisitioning goods and restricting civil liberties.
“Burkina Faso’s military junta is using its emergency law, which gives it the ability to recruit and reposition people and goods, to silence and even punish its critics,” said Ilaria Allegrozzi, senior Sahel researcher at Human Rights Watch. “This practice violates fundamental human rights.”
Burkina Faso’s military government did not respond to interview requests and declined to comment on the practice of forced conscription.
The US Department of State said in a statement on December 12 that it is concerned about recent actions by the military government of Burkina Faso, “such as the increasing use of targeted forced conscriptions, shrinking social space and restrictions on political parties.”
It added: “These actions have the cumulative effect of silencing individuals who work on behalf of their country to promote democratic governance.”
Although the emergency decree allows the government to recruit citizens over the age of 18, rights groups say targeted application of the law violates basic human rights.
Three of the people working at the same time as Dr. Diallo received draft notices, have sued the government. In early December, a court in the capital Ouagadougou sided with them and declared the orders unlawful. Despite the ruling, all three – two rights activists, Rasmané Zinaba and Bassirou Badjo, and Issaka Lingani, a journalist – remain in hiding, fearing for their lives.
“We saw it coming for Daouda,” said Binta Sidibe-Gascon, the president of Kisal Observatory, a rights group originating from Burkina Faso but now exiled to Paris, citing Dr. Diallo, the pharmacist. “We told him: it is not safe for you to stay in the country. But he said people needed him there.”
Earlier this year, Arouna Louré, an anesthesiologist from Ouagadougou, was conscripted and sent to work as an army doctor in one of the country’s most dangerous areas after criticizing him in a Facebook post the army’s response to a jihadist attack.
“It is not only illegal, but also cruel,” said Ms. Allegrozzi of Human Rights Watch. ‘It’s like: you criticized the military. Now you will see for yourself what it looks like and what it feels like to be a soldier.”
Several Burkina Faso residents, including activists, journalists and analysts, refused to be interviewed because they feared for their lives. “Anyone who speaks out against the junta will disappear,” one of them said.
Those who disappeared had been especially critical, borne out by data on how the government’s reliance on a solely military strategy to defeat insurgents has backfired, analysts and aid workers say.
“Violence in Burkina Faso has reached record levels,” said Heni Nsaibia, a senior analyst at Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, which tracks data on conflicts in Africa. “The number of fatalities resulting from the conflict has skyrocketed.”
In places like the northern city of Djibo, which has grown from 60,000 to 300,000 inhabitants and has been under an ongoing blockade for the past two years, residents rely solely on supplies brought in by UN humanitarian flights.
Many people, exhausted by the endless cycle of violence, have welcomed Mr Traore’s security pledge. The streets of Ouagadougou are decorated with flags of Russia. Banners feature images of soldiers and patriotic messages. Roundabouts are being monitored by unofficial militias, called ‘Irissi, irissi’, or Russian in Moore, the local language of the main ethnic group, after rumors that they are paid by Russia.
Fifty thousand people responded to the government’s call to volunteer for the army, which pays a monthly stipend of about $107, above the minimum wage and highly desirable in a country where regular income is rare. Some said they would also like to contribute to the war effort.
Ouattara Fadouba, a musician, said he had joined the volunteer forces earlier this year but has not yet been sent to the front. Instead, he records songs praising the government.
“The country has been attacked by terrorists and I have made myself available to the nation,” he said in a telephone interview from Ouagadougou. “If I’m called to the front lines, I’ll go.”
But those who criticize the government’s all-military strategy refuse to be silenced. Mr Louré, the anesthetist, has been relieved of duty and returned home last week after spending three months in military camps and on the front lines. The experience only reinforced his view that relying solely on the military to fight insurgents is the worst option.
“The more the state perpetuates violence, the more people become frustrated and may want to join terrorist groups,” he said.