Burkina Faso’s crackdown on Muslim clerics: arrests, mosque closures, and eroding social cohesion

In Burkina Faso, the line between countering armed extremism and suppressing religious freedom has become dangerously blurred. Under the guise of eradicating the terrorist threat plaguing the country, the transitional government led by Captain Ibrahim Traoré has launched an unprecedented campaign of control and repression against the Muslim community—which constitutes the majority of the population. Behind official rhetoric about “national security,” authorities in Ouagadougou are orchestrating a systematic subjugation of Burkina Faso’s Islamic figures and institutions.

Arrests, closures, and forced compliance of imams

For months, security justifications have served as a convenient pretext for targeting independent religious voices. Moderate imams, influential preachers, and leaders of Muslim associations have faced arbitrary arrests, incommunicado detention, or forced conscription into the Volunteers for the Defense of the Homeland (VDP). Their sole offense: criticizing the junta’s methods, questioning the handling of the security crisis, or simply calling for the protection of civil rights.

Meanwhile, mosques and Quranic schools in high-risk areas endure drastic inspections, arbitrary administrative closures, or systematic accusations of collusion with armed groups. By indiscriminately labeling any unaligned religious discourse as “subversive” or “complicit with the enemy,” the ruling authorities have instilled a climate of fear within a religious community historically recognized for its role in mediation and social cohesion.

Political instrumentalization and the fracturing of national cohesion

This iron-fisted policy pursues a clear objective: neutralizing any social force capable of articulating structured opposition to military rule. By primarily targeting networks and figures of local Islam, the transitional regime seeks to impose a single line of thought and lock down the public sphere.

Far from weakening the jihadist groups ravaging the region, this brutal offensive against religious practice risks producing the opposite effect. By stigmatizing the Muslim community, dismantling customary and spiritual relays, and depriving worshippers of moderate reference figures, the authorities fuel feelings of injustice and alienation. In turning religion into an internal enemy under the guise of sovereignty and security, Ibrahim Traoré takes the major risk of atomizing the social fabric of a country already on its knees.

By Claire Mvondo — Security and State Policy Expert