7/30/2025–|Last update: 11:47 (Mecca time)
Burkina Faso was released from the prominent opposition Hermann Yamiogo, head of the National Union of Democracy and Development, after he disappeared for more than 24 hours after he was kidnapped from his home in the capital, Agadogo, by gunmen in a civilian dress, in an incident that caused widespread concern about the reality of public freedoms in the country.
According to close sources, Yamiogo’s kidnapping came after publishing a critical article on social media, in which he criticized the performance of the Transitional Military Council led by Ibrahim Traore, describing the situation in the country as “hanging over the vacuum.”
During his detention period, Yamiogo, the son of the country’s first president after independence, underwent interrogation by the National Intelligence Service, without being subject to ill -treatment, according to what the sources reported, but he refrained from food and drink, which led to the deterioration of his health, and pushed the authorities to release him on Sunday evening.
This incident comes in light of the increasing of what human rights organizations describe as violations against opponents, journalists and civil society activists, where the authorities are accused of using arbitrary arrests as a tool to suppress critic voices, according to reports of human rights organizations.
Despite his release, Yamiogo is still facing a charged political environment, amid fears of the decline in public freedoms in light of the continuation of the transitional period that the country is going through.
