Rights organizations are intensifying calls on Burkina Faso’s military authorities to immediately reveal the fate and whereabouts of investigative journalist and editor Serge Oulon, who vanished after being seized from his home in Ouagadougou by armed men claiming to be state agents.

Oulon, known for hard-hitting investigations into corruption and abuses by the security forces, disappeared shortly after publishing a report that allegedly implicated senior officers in embezzlement and extortion linked to the fight against jihadist groups. His family says he was taken without a warrant and that officials have consistently denied holding him or providing any information about his case.

An investigation by Reporters Without Borders has since concluded that Oulon is being held incommunicado at a private property in the capital, where he has reportedly been tortured and denied access to a lawyer, medical care, or contact with relatives. The organization describes his situation as an enforced disappearance and a grave violation of international law.

“Oulon has been specifically targeted for his journalistic work by the regime and was subjected to different kinds of abuses and detained without any contact with a lawyer or family members,” said Sadibou Marong, the group’s Sub-Saharan Africa director. “Oulon’s family and friends have the right to know what happened to him and obtain justice.”

Human rights groups say his case is emblematic of a broader pattern of repression under the junta led by Captain Ibrahim Traoré. According to multiple organizations, Burkinabe security forces have converted villas in the upscale Ouaga 2000 district and other properties on the outskirts of Ouagadougou into clandestine detention sites. There, they allegedly hold hundreds of people in secret, including opposition figures, critical journalists, activists, and others labeled as enemies of the state.

Since Traoré took power in a coup, authorities have suspended or expelled several media outlets, particularly foreign broadcasters and news agencies, accusing them of undermining the government’s campaign against jihadist insurgents. Political parties, student unions, and segments of the judiciary have also been suspended under a sweeping emergency law adopted in the name of national security.

The International Federation for Human Rights and allied groups are demanding Oulon’s immediate release, an independent investigation into his disappearance and alleged torture, and the closure of all unofficial detention sites. They warn that continued silence from the authorities will deepen a climate of fear and impunity that threatens what remains of civic space in Burkina Faso.