Burkina Faso Suspends BBC, Voice of America For 2 Weeks

Burkina Faso’s communications authority, the CSC, has temporarily halted BBC Africa and Voice of America (VOA) broadcasts from its capital, Ouagadougou.

The suspension, effective for two weeks, comes after both networks aired a contentious human rights report on their digital platforms.

The report in question, released by the international NGO Human Rights Watch on Thursday, alleged that soldiers in the jihadist-afflicted northern region of Burkina Faso carried out retaliatory attacks on villagers, resulting in the deaths of at least 223 civilians, including 56 children, on February 25.

The CSC criticised the networks for what it described as “hasty and biased declarations without tangible proof” against the Burkinabe army.

“The programmes of these two international radio networks have been suspended for a period of two weeks,” the CSC stated late Thursday evening.
They further explained that the decision was based on the
accusations levied against the Burkina army of abuses against civilians, which they believe lacked sufficient evidence.

As of now, Burkina Faso’s government has not officially responded to the allegations as the nation continues to struggle with a severe jihadist insurgency that began spilling over from Mali in 2015.