“Sent to the front lines”: behind the official narrative, the abuse inflicted on journalist Atiana Serge Oulon in a secret prison

According to information obtained by RSF, Burkinabe investigative journalist Atiana Serge Oulon has been detained until at least the end of 2025 in a villa near the US embassy in the Ouaga 2000 district of the capital. This secret detention contradicts the version presented by the authorities in October 2024. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls for the journalist's immediate release.

“Everyone is free to say what they want and give their opinion.” In an interview given to several journalists on April 2, the head of the ruling junta in Burkina Faso, Captain Ibrahim Traoré, presented an overview of public freedoms that contrasts sharply with the situation in which Burkinabè journalists find themselves, Atiana Serge Oulon first and foremost.

For nearly two years, the renowned investigative journalist and editor-in-chief of L'Événement, a leading newspaper in the country, had given no sign of life. On June 24, 2024, he was abducted at dawn from his home by about ten armed men in civilian clothes. A few hours later, two members of the National Intelligence Agency arrived at the journalist's wife's home to retrieve Atiana Serge Oulon's computer and telephone equipment.

In July 2024, Ibrahim Traoré himself claimed responsibility for the forced recruitment of a journalist, without naming him. Weeks and months passed. Atiana Serge Oulon's family and friends remained without news and feared the worst. On October 24, 2024, before the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights, the Director General of Human Rights at the Ministry of Justice, Marcel Zongo, stated that several journalists, including Atiana Serge Oulon, had been requisitioned and sent to the front lines.

The investigation conducted by RSF reveals a very different reality. Since his arrest, and at least until the end of 2025, Atiana Serge Oulon has never left Ouagadougou, the country's capital. Far from the front lines, the editor of the newspaper L'Événement has been detained, held captive, and subjected to violence in a villa, transformed into a makeshift prison, in a housing development located opposite the United States embassy.

These villas were built in the late 1990s, during Blaise Compaoré's presidency, to accommodate dignitaries and officials and compensate for the lack of hotel capacity during major events held in the Burkinabe capital. Located in the Ouaga 2000 district, directly across from the US embassy, they are now used for discreet detention. “When I was kidnapped, the passenger ordered the driver to make a U-turn just past the US embassy. We then quickly turned right,” explains a former prisoner, who wishes to remain anonymous.

“It’s like Bin Laden was arriving”

Atiana Serge Oulon was held in at least two villas in this neighborhood. He was transferred to the second residence in August 2024, to a large room converted into a cell, equipped with a dressing room and a bathroom, shared with up to forty other prisoners according to several accounts. Daily, two teams of about six guards, one of whom is always masked, take turns every three days to monitor the prisoners.

The room is completely bare and dark because the windows are boarded up. “We slept on the bare floor, we wore the same clothes for months. We drank toilet water,” testifies a former prisoner. No outings are allowed, and like the other detainees, the editor of the newspaper L'Événement is repeatedly deprived of food by his captors. The rest of the time, they all consider themselves adequately fed. Other rooms in the villa have also been converted into cells.

Upon arrival, the newcomers are interrogated in the former lounge, located to the left of the entrance, which is also used to brutalize prisoners. Threats of execution and gratuitous violence are commonplace there. In addition to slaps and blows, the guards use cords or tree branches as whips. The welcoming committee consists of a commando unit armed with assault rifles, a setup worthy of the most notorious criminals. “It’s like Bin Laden arriving,” a former inmate remarks ironically today.

“After nearly two years of uncertainty surrounding his fate, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has confirmed that Atiana Serge Oulon is indeed being arbitrarily detained by the Burkinabe regime. Held captive in a villa in the capital, he has been subjected to violence and deprivation, with no information being released about his situation. The journalist’s supposed mobilization into the army was merely a cover for his detention. Since, according to the regime, everyone is free to say what they want and express their opinion, we call for his release. His place is neither on the front lines nor in a secret prison.”

Haifa Mzalouat and Camille Montagu

Investigative journalist and journalist in RSF's Sub-Saharan Africa bureau

Atiana Serge Oulon, journalist targeted by all forms of violence

According to information gathered by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), Atiana Serge Oulon was one of the most brutally abused detainees during his first months of captivity. The investigative journalist was reportedly targeted by Second Lieutenant Ismaël Ouédraogo, who repeatedly told him he “couldn’t stand him.” “He was the man Ismaël hated the most, and the one he abused the most,” confided a former fellow captive. One day, Atiana Serge Oulon returned with his hand bandaged. “He told us that Ismaël Ouédraogo had driven a nail into his hand,” a witness reported. The violence against the journalist only began to subside in March 2025.

Clearly, the presidency is directly involved in these secret detentions, as evidenced by the actions of Lieutenant Aziz Pacmogda, who heads Ibrahim Traoré's close protection detail. While his visits to the villas are rare, he personally handles the detainees' briefings before their release, urging them "not to say just anything" once they are out.

How can the Burkinabe authorities secretly detain dozens of civilians? Since April 2024, a decree has authorized the establishment of additional detention facilities, separate from existing structures. This is a way “to cover their tracks and legalize current practices” of secret detention, according to a member of civil society who wishes to remain anonymous. Despite repeated attempts to contact him, the Minister of Communication, Pingdwendé Gilbert Ouédraogo, did not respond to RSF's requests for comment.

Atiana Serge Oulon and the 400 million CFA francs

Atiana Serge Oulon has been targeted by Ibrahim Traoré's regime since December 2022. The journalist revealed the embezzlement of 400 million CFA francs (approximately €610,000) by a "captain from the North-Central region." This rank and region correspond to Ibrahim Traoré's position at the time, even though the funds were initially intended for the Volunteers for the Defense of the Homeland (VDP), the army's civilian auxiliaries. At the end of 2022, the journalist was questioned by military authorities, who were trying to identify his source. Just days before his abduction in June 2024, Atiana Serge Oulon published another article related to the case.

Since the junta came to power, ten journalists have been victims of abduction, arbitrary detention, and even, in some cases, actual mobilization within the army. While seven of them have now been released, RSF remains without news of Moussa Sareba, a journalist and community manager for the private media outlet Radio Oméga, who was abducted from the offices of the private media outlet Fil Infos on August 10, 2025. As for Bienvenue Apiou, a journalist with the community radio station Bagrepole FM, who disappeared in July 2024, the Burkinabe authorities have never commented on his fate. RSF learned during this investigation that he is also being held incommunicado in villas in Ouaga 2000.