Dr. Daouda Diallo, staunch defender of human rights and the freedoms of the Peul ethnic groupa necessary man and received the Martin Ennals Prize for his commitment to Burkinabe societyHe was kidnapped and his family has had news of him for five days. It happened on December 1 last year in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, when the director of the Collective Against Impunity and Stigmatization of Communities (CISC) went to renew his passport. He intended to travel to Turkey to be examined for a shoulder problem that has forced him to take medication to relieve the pain for years. For this reason, it was a bit boring when he arrived at the Gounghin police station and the police officers apologized to him and told him that the commissioner was not there and it would be better if he came back after a few hours.
From his driver’s statement it appears that Diallo had just left prayer when they called him to return to the police station; When he returned, he only came out after two hours of talking to the inspector. He was already on his way to the car when they cut him off. Some “muscular men” in civilian clothes asked him to get into their car, which was an SUV with no license plates parked very close to where they were. The activist recognized the danger and tried to escape. He ran a few meters, the others continued running and forced him into the SUV, abandoning Diallo’s driver.
Three days later, a photo of Diallo dressed as a military man driving a pickup truck and looking sleepy began circulating on social media. Daniel Gnienhoun is the doctor’s personal secretary and tells LA RAZÓN how they know that the image is true and not a manipulation of social networks: he identifies the white pants that he was wearing on the day of his kidnapping and that peeked out from under his uniform. and you too see the same shoes. “They put the uniform on him to take the photo,” Daniel concludes, before explaining why he believes the kidnapping may have been carried out by the state itself.
Marked, marked
He is talking about a recruitment blacklist the government published a month ago that includes the names of 12 Burkinabe figures known for their resistance to the military junta’s violent practices. These include Diallo himself, but also Charles Wendpouiré, Yacouba Ladji Bama and the journalist Issaka Lingani, 64 years old., activists and journalists who suffered the same fate: camouflage uniforms and lots of rice with their meals. This is the new fashion since the Burkinabe state assumed the power to arbitrarily select recruits through a new general mobilization decree in April 2023, justifying itself by saying that its criteria will take into account “the needs expressed by the relevant authorities”.
The fact that he was kidnapped at the door of a police station only confirms that he was kidnapped by the state and incorporated into the Burkinabe armed forces. It is not yet known which needs will be covered.
Other names on this blacklist that Daniel Gnienhoun cites have chosen to flee or hide from the authorities, but Dr. Diallo, a 41-year-old Burkinabe man who has no military training Because he is a peaceful person, a friend of books and very good conversations, a popular voice whose useful capital the state must definitely use to fight on a social level instead of with weapons, he will do so at this point in time Patrol car in the pickup, rifle slung over his shoulder, still dizzy from where he ended up. He’s a condemned man and he can see it. His family only knows about him what fits in a photo; they don’t know his whereabouts, nothing. Soldiers grow around him, seeking revenge on the battlefield, Colleagues whom he had publicly criticized until a week agoyoung and ardent supporters of the one who brought Diallo into this fateful situation: Captain Ibrahim TraoreHead of state of Burkina Faso since his triumphant coup in 2022. His private David if Diallo were Urías.
It will be interesting to know that the response from an alarming number of X users has been one of delight. You can read dozens of responses from reports from Burkinabé and Africa, with messages such as “No sacrifice is too great for the defense of the homeland,” “What good news,” or emoticons of smiling faces upon learning that Diallo and Charles Wendpouiré an the front are.
But if Traoré’s supporters view these carefully selected recruits as “weeds that must be eradicated from the country,” human rights defenders view a handful of brave men as flowers (the weeds in Burkina Faso are the vines). of jihadism, banditry and power struggles, which they get a little more under control with every coup), which give fragrance and enrich the sacred garden of humanity with their pollen.
The European Union also appears to display a tolerance towards Ibrahim Traoré that other countries sanctioned by the West would envy. If the EU suspended development aid to Niger immediately after this summer’s coup and the EUTM in Mali was reduced to a minimum, this shows a clear divergence in positions between Europe and the Africans, not even two months ago The Bundeswehr donated 600,000 euros in vehicles and equipment to the Burkinabe gendarmes and police.
To make it clearer: the European Union maintains the sanctions against Guinea-Conakry, Mali and Niger, treating them as three countries governed by military authorities… but the same does not apply to Burkina Faso. Neither the United Nations nor Brussels have issued a statement expressing “serious concern” about the violent situation in Burkina. For example in our own military They massacred this spring in Karma to almost 200 civilians. Although the aim of this article is not to explain the reasons that lead the EU to cover its ears when listening to the illegalities committed in Burkina Faso (mines, anti-terror strategy, French geopolitics, etc.), no matter how valid these may seem, it is more about the fate that guides Doctor Diallo.
It is believed to be somewhere in the north. Tomorrow he could die and millions would celebrate it as a victory for the country, blinded by faith in their Machiavellian leader. Under the pseudonym Traoré, a disease is destroying the Burkinabe institutions, it is called authoritarianism and no one says anything, but it is very dangerous for freedom in the land of upright men. Or would we say that the Hebrew king acted righteously when the Ammonites killed Uriah?
And Daniel Gnienhoun admits that he is afraid to appear on the next list, although he does not allow himself to be intimidated: he sets an example of courage by lending his statements to LA RAZÓN while explaining that his media presence in the last Days on both radio and national television, he describes him as the next target to beat in Traoré’s hasty race to win a war he will lose.