The correspondents of the French newspapers Le Monde and Libération in Burkina Faso were expelled from the country last night, as their editors announced today, citing “unacceptable” and “arbitrary” action.

“Our correspondent in Burkina Faso Sophie Douche expelled from the country…along with her Libération colleague Anies Feb“, the newspaper Monde reported on its website.

“The sentence was imposed and, with it, came the confirmation that the freedom of the press in Burkina Faso is under serious threat,” Libération wrote for its part, clarifying that its correspondent and her colleague from Monde arrived “this morning at Paris”.

On Monday, Burkina Faso, ruled by a regime that emerged from two coups in 2022 and facing an increase in deadly jihadist attacks, cut off French television network France24’s broadcasts on its soil. In early December, the junta had already suspended the broadcasting of Radio France Internationale (RFI), the same group as France 24, France Medias Monde.

The newspaper Le Monde “strongly condemns this arbitrary decision which forced the two journalists to leave Ouagadougou in less than 24 hours”.

“Sophie Douche, like her colleague, practiced independent journalism for Le Monde Afrique, away from any pressure,” the newspaper said.

Libération reported that “the release on March 27 of the Libération investigation into the circumstances in which a video showing the execution of children and teenagers in a barracks, by at least one soldier, was filmed, apparently caused great displeasure in the junta ruling Burkina Faso.”

“The government strongly condemns this manipulation under the guise of journalism in order to tarnish the image of a country of honest people,” the Burkina Faso government spokesman said. Jean-Emmanuel Wendrag, after this investigation was made public, assuring that the army “acted with absolute respect for international humanitarian law”.