In the latest action against a French media outlet, military-ruled Burkina Faso on Saturday halted “all distribution methods” of Le Monde daily following a story on a deadly terrorist attack in the north.
According to a statement released by Communication Minister Rimtalba Jean Emmanuel Ouedraogo, “the government has decided to suspend all distribution methods of the newspaper Le Monde in Burkina Faso starting from Saturday, December 2, 2023.”
He denounced a “biased article,” alluding to a report on a brutal Islamist attack on a military base in Djibo on November 26 that appeared on the website of Le Monde on Friday.
The Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims claimed responsibility for at least 40 civilian deaths in the attack, according to the UN, although Burkinabe security officials reported a “few” military casualties.
“The Burkinabe government has never found itself in a propaganda mindset in the war we are waging against terrorism,” Ouedraogo stated, “contrary to what the newspaper Le Monde peremptorily claims.”
Le Monde, he continued, “has chosen its side.”
The French TV channels LCI and France24, together with Radio France Internationale and the publication Jeune Afrique, have all been suspended by the Burkinabe government in recent months.
Expulsions have also been announced for the journalists of Liberation and Le Monde, two French newspapers.
Amnesty International called on the government to put an end to “attacks and threats” against the freedom of the press in the West African nation in April.
After the military took over in a coup in 2022, relations between Burkina Faso and the previous colonial power France collapsed, with the former claiming ineffective attempts to put an end to an Islamist insurgency that broke up in 2015.
Since then, the junta has shifted its allegiance toward Russia and away from its longtime ally, which forced it to remove its forces stationed against the rebels.
Since 2015, rebels connected to the Islamic State group and al-Qaida have been fighting the state after an insurrection in neighboring Mali erupted.
Numerous people have been displaced and hundreds of civilians and security force members have died as a result of the war.
