Three magistrates from the Ouagadougou Court of Appeal and two journalists from major private daily newspapers have been "kidnapped" or reported "missing," AFP learned Monday from a media outlet, a relative, and a judicial source.

In Burkina Faso, the military regime led by Captain Ibrahim Traoré, which emerged from a coup in September 2022, is regularly accused of repressing figures considered hostile to the government. Some are forcibly mobilized to fight the jihadists who are undermining the country.

In recent months, the government has released around ten people who were kidnapped or arrested and then forcibly mobilized, including journalists, civil society leaders and those close to politicians.

"As he was preparing to lead the daily editorial conference this Monday, October 13, the editorial director of L'Observateur Paalga, Ousséni Ilboudo, was arrested by individuals presenting themselves as members of the National Intelligence Agency (ANR)," the private daily warned on its Facebook page.

"He immediately complied with this order and was immediately taken aboard a van to a destination unknown to us," said the oldest Burkinabe newspaper.

"Until the time we published this dispatch, we still had no news from our editorial director," the newspaper lamented.

Earlier, another journalist, Michel Nana, deputy editor-in-chief of the private daily Le Pays, "was abducted around 9 a.m. (local time and GMT) by men in civilian clothes, probably from the ANR," one of his relatives told AFP, assuring that "research is underway to find out where he was taken and what he is accused of."

In addition, two magistrates from the Ouagadougou Court of Appeal "were kidnapped" and another is "missing," according to a judicial source to AFP.

"Urbain Méda and Benoît Zoungrana were abducted on Friday and Sunday respectively, while Seydou Sanou has been missing since Saturday," the source said.

In addition, dozens of officers, including former gendarmerie chief of staff Evrard Somda, have been arrested over the past year, accused of "conspiracy" or "attempting to destabilize republican institutions."