Since the 2020‑2023 coups in Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, military leaders have imposed sweeping criminal defamation and antiterrorism laws that enable the arbitrary detention of journalists, bloggers and activists. They have also ordered the shutdown of independent radio stations and online platforms.
“It has become more repressive. It’s no longer as easy to speak out,” said Ulf Laessing, former director of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation’s Sahel program in Mali. People have become more cautious.
“That is clearly a point of criticism against the government,” he told DW.
In Mali, General Assimi Goita seized power through two military coups in 2020 and 2021 and gradually placed the country under military rule. In 2025, the National Transitional Council passed a draft law securing Goita’s rule for another five years.
According to Laessing, the unstable security situation had initially improved somewhat in some parts of Mali, and farmers were even able to return to their fields. That is no longer the case today. Mali still faces the threat of terrorism andjihadist insurgents control some parts of the country. “I don’t think any government will succeed in recapturing those areas. Even if there were more coups or eventually an elected government,” he sees little chance of bringing peace to the country.
According to Laessing, the people in Bamako want neither Sharia law nor the Islamists. There would have been plenty of reasons to protest against the government, despite the dangers and repression. But the people are aware that if this government goes, the next one will be more Islamist.
“That’s not what the people want,” Laessing said.
Silencing dissent in Burkina Faso
In the other two countries of the Sahel Alliance (AES), founded in 2023—Burkina Faso and Niger—military rulers are also governing with an iron fist. Freedom of expression and democratic aspirations are being severely curtailed.
“In the case of Burkina Faso, I would say that public space no longer exists at all,” Burkinabe human rights activist Binta Sidibe-Gascon told DW. “Everyone is forced into silence and pressured to self-censor. Anyone who dares to speak out about the national situation is sent to the front lines.”
Sidibe-Gascon is president of the NGO Observatoire Kisal and a member of the Citizens’ Coalition for the Sahel, an alliance that aims to strengthen civil society in the Sahel. She herself lives in the diaspora.
Burkinabe President Ibrahim Traore seized power in a coup in September 2022 and promised the Burkinabe people that he would restore security in the country.
Little evidence of that is visible. “All the rights of the Burkinabe have been seized and are now in the hands of a single man who makes all the decisions. Civil rights, human rights, property rights — even the right to life. The death penalty has been reinstated. This is a step backward for Burkina Faso,” Sidibe-Gascon said.
Junta leader Traore’s views on these fundamental democratic rights became clear by early April. “People need to forget about democracy,” Traore said on national television. “If an African tries to talk to you about democracy, you should run away. Democracy kills.”
Freedom of the press is also severely restricted in Burkina Faso. According to Reporters Without Borders, cases of intimidation against media workers have increased in recent years, and a dozen journalists have been forced into exile. “The ruling junta has also muzzled foreign, mainly French, media outlets,” the organization writes. In 2024, at least ten of them, including Jeune Afrique, Deutsche Welle and the Guardian, were suspended for a specific period or until further notice.
One example of how harshly the military regime is cracking down is the May 26 arrest of Imam Mohamed Ishaq Kindo, a prominent Sunni religious leader. The imam is said to have criticized a law intended to regulate religious practices, including public prayer. The arrest sparked rare unrest in the capital, Ouagadougou. Hundreds of supporters demanded Kindo’ s release, clashed with police, and dozens were arrested.
Ruling by spreading fear
For Newton Ahmed Barry, a Burkinabe journalist living in exile, these events are part of a strategy of fear. “This is the logic of this junta and its leader: the more people are afraid, the more they buy their way out of trouble. They instill fear and terror in everyone in order to keep them under their control and thus rule in peace,” Barry said.
Another sign of repression is the three-month suspension of the General Union of Students of Burkina Faso (UGEB). Its president and several members were arrested. The union had criticized the security situation. Now the organization is accused of “glorifying terrorism” and “demoralizing the security forces.”
Mahamadou Idder Alghabid, deputy secretary-general of the Alliance of Sahel Democrats (ADS), sees the accusations as part of a regional trend. “It is absurd to accuse students, unarmed civilians, of glorifying terrorism. But this is a well-known pattern in the Sahel,” he told DW.
In his view, the juntas’ “propaganda” initially worked because they presented concepts that Africans longed for: Things like sovereignty and what they called the fight against imperialism. “But today, all these promises to the people of the Sahel— whether they come from Burkina Faso, Niger or Mali — have proven to be false.” People in the Sahel are realizing this and abandoning the “coup plotters’ ship.”
Despite the risks — arrests, kidnappings, violence — there continues to be vocal criticism, though mostly from abroad, Alghabid emphasized. “We are aware of how immense the struggle ahead of us is, because we are facing three military regimes.”
Activists believe that responsibility lies not only with civil society and the diaspora, but also with the international community. “Burkina Faso’s partners can no longer hide behind the notion that any condemnation of the junta is counterproductive,” says Ilaria Allegrozzi, a Sahel researcher at the rights group Human Rights Watch. “Silence and ambiguity ultimately always legitimize authoritarian excesses.”
This article was originally written in German
