Burkina Faso junta suspends biggest student union and arrests leader

Burkina Faso’s military leaders have suspended the country’s largest student union and arrested its leader.

A decree from the Minister for Territorial Administration said the General Union of Students of Burkina (Ugeb) will be barred from operating for three months for “advocating terrorism”.

It is the latest salvo in the ongoing crackdown on independent organisations by the junta which seized power in a 2022 coup.

The military authorities have pursued a hardline policy against dissenting voices, dissolving or suspending nearly 1,000 civil society groups in recent weeks.

This latest move comes after Ugeb last week denounced "violations of democratic, trade union, and political freedoms" and complained about people being abducted, detained, and held in secret.

It also criticised the junta for its "obvious inability to restore security" in a country still undermined by jihadist violence across most of its territory.

The union said around 10 students, including its president Wilfried Bazo, were arrested overnight on Monday to Tuesday by a group of armed, unidentified individuals who stormed their headquarters in Ouagadougou.

Prosecutors say they will conduct a judicial probe into the student organisation, in light of the "gravity" of the writings and statements attributed to it.

Rights campaign group Human Rights Watch condemned the suspension of Ugeb saying silencing students would not address the country’s worsening security and governance crisis.