Military regimes in Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso and Niger are systematically using forced disappearances and unlawful detentions to silence critics and suppress opposition voices. Recent findings from global human rights organizations highlight this alarming trend as a deliberate strategy to maintain political control.

Since July 9, 2024, two prominent activists from Guinea’s Front National pour la Défense de la Constitution—Mamadou Billo Bah and Oumar Sylla (known as ‘Foniké Menguè’)—have been forcibly disappeared. They were abducted from Oumar Sylla’s home the night before a mass protest against rising living costs and the demand for a return to civilian rule. According to Mohamed Cissé, another activist who was detained with them and later released with severe injuries, the two were taken by security forces to an undisclosed detention site in the Loos Islands archipelago off Conakry. Despite mounting evidence, authorities continue to deny holding them, leaving their fate uncertain.

How forced disappearances instill fear in civil society

Across West Africa, military regimes deploy forced disappearances as a tool to intimidate civil society actors, including journalists, judges, lawyers, activists, and human rights defenders. Victims are often kidnapped in broad daylight—on streets, at home, or at work—by armed assailants, sometimes posing as state agents. They are blindfolded, placed in unmarked vehicles, and held in secret locations for days, weeks, or even longer, undergoing coercive interrogations.

These detentions violate national and international law. No warrants are issued. Authorities deny involvement or withhold information about the detainees’ whereabouts. Families and legal representatives are kept in the dark. In many cases, victims are held in unofficial detention centers, such as security service offices. The lack of oversight creates a climate of terror, where no one is safe—exactly the goal of these repressive tactics.

The growing list of the disappeared and illegally detained

Cases continue to mount across the region. In Burkina Faso, human rights lawyer and co-founder of the Balai Citoyen movement, Guy Hervé Kam, was unlawfully detained for five months in 2024. In March 2025, five members of the Sens movement’s executive board were abducted by armed men in civilian clothing—witnesses believe them to be security personnel—after they publicly condemned civilian massacres linked to the armed conflict. Authorities have remained silent despite urgent appeals from civil society. Four journalists—Serge Oulon, Adama Bayala, Kalifara Séré, and Alain Traoré (aka ‘Alain Alain’)—were forcibly taken in June and July 2024. In October 2024, authorities finally announced that three had been conscripted into the military under a general mobilization decree, while the fourth remains unaccounted for.

In Niger, journalist and blogger Samira Sabou disappeared for a week in September 2023 after her arrest at home. Lawyers for Moussa Tchangari, Secretary-General of Alternatives Espaces Citoyens, were only informed of his detention site two days after his abduction—once he had been transferred to police custody.

In Mali, Ibrahim Nabi Togola, leader of the opposition party Nouvelle Vision pour le Mali, was kidnapped in December 2024 by suspected state security agents and held incommunicado for 45 days before being released. In Guinea, journalist Habib Marouane Camara was abducted on December 3, 2024, by armed men identified by witnesses as gendarmes. His family has had no news since.

Justice under siege: upholding the rule of law

Many of these cases end with victims being handed over to police to face sham prosecutions. In Burkina Faso, some detainees have faced even graver fates: forced conscription into the military and deployment to frontline combat zones. This occurred to Guézouma Sanogo and Boukari Ouoba, President and Vice-President of the Burkinabè Journalists’ Association, who had criticized escalating press freedom violations, and to Luc Pagbelguem of the private channel BF1, who amplified their concerns. Their families were left without news for a week after their arrest on March 24, 2025, until a video surfaced showing them in military uniforms.

Independent courts in the region have begun pushing back. In July 2024, Guinea’s bar association staged a multi-day boycott demanding the release of Oumar Sylla and Mamadou Billo Bah. In Burkina Faso, judges ordered the immediate release of lawyer Guy Hervé Kam. Courts in Mali and Niger have also ruled against arbitrary detentions. Yet these courageous legal actions have come at a cost: at least five Burkinabè magistrates were forcibly conscripted into the military in 2024 after presiding over cases involving authorities or their allies.

Despite relentless pressure, the judiciary must continue to resist unlawful military interference. Sustained international support for justice systems in these countries is essential to defend the rule of law and protect countless lives still unaccounted for.