Burkina Faso has suspended the BBC and Voice of America radio networks from broadcasting after they aired a rights report accusing the army of attacks on civilians in its battle against jihadists.

The British and US broadcasters are the latest international media organisations to be targeted since Captain Ibrahim Traore seized power in the West African country in a September 2022 coup.

“The programmes of these two international radio networks broadcasting from Ouagadougou have been suspended for a period of two weeks,” Burkina’s communications authority, the CSC, announced late on Thursday.

It said the decision had been taken because BBC Africa and the VOA had aired and also published a report on their digital platforms “accusing the Burkina army of abuses against the civilian population”.

The CSC said the report contained “hasty and biased declarations without tangible proof against the Burkinabe army”.

International NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Thursday that soldiers in Burkina Faso’s jihadist-hit north had killed at least 223 villagers, including 56 children, in two revenge attacks on February 25.

Burkinabe authorities, contacted by AFP, have not commented on the accusations.

The country has been battling attacks from groups linked to Al-Qaeda and Islamic State since a jihadist insurgency swept in from neighbouring Mali in 2015.

Since then, around 20,000 people have been killed in Burkina Faso and around two million forced to flee their homes.

VOA said on Friday it had sought reactions to the HRW report “from several Burkinabe officials” but had received no response and intended “to continue to fully and fairly cover activities in the country”.

The UN Human Rights Office said it was “concerned” about the suspension.

“Restrictions on media freedom and civic space must stop immediately,” spokesperson Marta Hurtado said in a statement.

“Freedom of expression including the right of access to information is crucial in any society, and even more so in the context of the transition in Burkina Faso.”

The CSC said it had “directed” internet service providers to suspend access to the sites and other digital platforms of the BBC, VOA and HRW from Burkinabe territory.

The approach of the BBC and VOA “undermines the cardinal principles of information processing in that it constitutes disinformation likely to bring discredit to the Burkinabe army” and could also disturb the public order.

The CSC urged all other media to refrain from carrying the article, warning that any offenders could face sanctions.

Burkina Faso has already targeted a number of French media outlets with suspensions, bans or the expulsion of foreign correspondents.

Under Traore, the junta has distanced Burkina Faso from France, which ruled the country until 1960.

The prime minister of Haiti, Ariel Henry, resigned his position on Thursday, paving the way for a new government to be formed in the Caribbean country.

According to CBS News, Henry presented his resignation in a letter dated April 24 and signed in Los Angeles by his office.
The development occurred the same day a council tasked with choosing a new prime minister and cabinet for Haiti was due to be sworn in.

The interim council was set to be installed more than a month after Caribbean leaders announced its creation, following an emergency meeting to tackle Haiti’s spiralling and parallel political and crime crises.

The nine-member council, of which seven have voting powers, is also expected to help set the agenda of a new cabinet. It will also appoint a provisional electoral commission, a requirement before elections can take place, and establish a national security council.

Haiti has been facing security challenges since February.

Recall that gangs launched coordinated attacks in the capital, Port-au-Prince and surrounding areas.

The assailants burned police stations and hospitals opened fire on the main international airport that has remained closed since early March, and stormed Haiti’s two biggest prisons, releasing more than 4,000 inmates.

Lawmakers in the US House of Representatives passed legislation Saturday to provide key aid to Ukraine and Israel and bolster Taiwan while also threatening a ban on TikTok if it fails to divest from Beijing.

The bills, passed in a rare Saturday session, were approved in quick succession by overwhelming bipartisan votes, though they leave the future of House Speaker Mike Johnson in some doubt as he seeks to fend off angry far-right detractors.

US President Joe Biden welcomed the votes, saying in a statement they would “deliver critical support to Israel and Ukraine; provide desperately needed humanitarian aid to Gaza, Sudan, Haiti, and other locations… and bolster security and stability in the Indo-Pacific.”

He praised lawmakers who came together across party lines “to answer history’s call.”

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky also welcomed the long-delayed aid package, saying the military and economic assistance would “save thousands and thousands of lives.”

Not surprisingly, Russia took the opposite view.

“It will further enrich the United States of America and ruin Ukraine even more, by killing even more Ukrainians because of the Kyiv regime,” said presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov, state news agency TASS reported.


The US Senate could take the bill up as early as Tuesday, the chamber’s Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said. Senate approval would then send the measure to Biden for his signature.

The bills are the product of months of acrimonious negotiations, pressure from US allies and repeated pleas for assistance from Zelensky.

The United States has been the chief military backer of Ukraine in its war against Russia, but Congress has not approved large-scale funding for its ally for nearly a year and a half, mainly because of the cross-aisle bickering.

Biden and Democratic lawmakers in Congress have been pushing for a major new weapons package for Ukraine for months.

But Republicans, influenced by the party’s presidential candidate Donald Trump, have been reluctant to provide funding to Kyiv for the drawn-out conflict.

The financing of the war has become a point of contention ahead of a presidential election in November that is expected to pit Biden against Trump once again.

Johnson, after months of hesitation, finally threw his support behind the $61 billion package for Ukraine.


“To put it bluntly, I’d rather send bullets to Ukraine than American boys,” Johnson said.

The handful of far-right Republicans who had threatened to engineer Johnson’s ouster if he pressed the Ukraine vote appeared to back away Saturday, at least temporarily.

“I’m going to let my colleagues go home and hear from their constituents” about their anger over the vote, congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene said on CNN.

The Ukraine bill also allows Biden to confiscate and sell Russian assets and provide the money to Ukraine to finance reconstruction, a move that has been embraced by other G7 nations.

– TikTok ban? –

At Biden’s request, some $8 billion under one bill would be used to counter China through investment in submarine infrastructure and boosting competition with Beijing on projects built in developing countries.

Several billion dollars would be devoted to weapons for Taiwan, the self-ruled island that is claimed by China.

The first of the bills passed Saturday would force TikTok to divest from its Chinese parent company ByteDance or face a nationwide ban in the United States, where it has around 170 million users.

Western officials have voiced alarm over the popularity of TikTok with young people, alleging that it is subservient to Beijing and a conduit to spread propaganda — claims denied by the company.

TikTok sharply denounced the bill, saying it “would trample the free speech rights of 170 million Americans, devastate seven million businesses, and shutter a platform that contributes $24 billion to the US economy annually,” a TikTok spokesman said.

A total of $13 billion in military assistance has been allocated for America’s historically Israel in its war against Hamas in Gaza.

The money will essentially be used to reinforce Israel’s Iron Dome air defences.

More than $9 billion will be earmarked to address “the dire need for humanitarian assistance for Gaza as well as other vulnerable populations around the world,” the legislation says.

Officials of NATO, the European Union and Germany welcomed the passage of the Ukraine bill in the House.