Burkina Authorities order France 24 to be suspended

Burkina: Authorities order France 24 to be suspended

The ruling junta in Burkina Faso on Monday ordered the suspension of the broadcast of France 24 on its territory “indefinitely” after an interview with the leader of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) on the news channel in early March. .

“By opening its antennae to the first head of AQIM, France 24 not only acts as a communications agency for these terrorists, worse, it provides a space for legitimizing terrorist actions and hate speech disseminated to the evil targets of this organization in Burkina Faso,” read a statement signed by government spokesman Jean-Emmanuel Ouedraogo.

“The government has therefore decided, with full responsibility and in the name of the best interests of the nation, to indefinitely suspend the broadcasting of France 24 programs throughout the national territory,” the text continues.

On March 6, France 24 broadcast written answers from Abou Obeida Youssef al-Annabi, head of AQIM, to about fifteen questions put by the French channel’s journalist and specialist on jihadist issues, Wassim Nasr.

Already at the beginning of December, the authorities of Ouagadougou had stopped broadcasting Radio France Internationale (RFI) from the same group as France 24, France Médias Monde.

RFI was specifically accused of relaying “a message of intimidation” attributed to a “terrorist leader”.

In Mali, which is also governed by a military junta, RFI and France 24 were suspended for a year.

“In the noble struggle to liberate our country from the barbarism of terrorist hordes and gunmen, the government warns that it will uncompromisingly defend the vital interests of our people against all those who use megaphones to increase terrorist actions, hate speech and division transmitted by these armed groups become,” the government states.

Since 2015, Burkina has been caught in a spiral of violence perpetrated by jihadist groups linked to Islamic State and al-Qaeda, which NGOs say have killed a total of 10,000 people – civilians and soldiers – and displaced some two million people.

Captain Ibrahim Traoré, who came to power in a coup six months ago, expressed in February his “intact determination” to fight the jihadists despite the multiplication of attacks.