In Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, the prominent lawyer and civil society leader Guy Herve Kam, associated with the Sens organisation, was abducted on Wednesday night by individuals dressed in civilian attire, according to the organisation’s announcement on Thursday.
Kam, a former magistrate and well-known figure for his role as the family lawyer of the late Thomas Sankara, the head of state from 1983-1987, was reported to have been taken after arriving at the capital’s airport from Bobo-Dioulasso.
The Sens group expressed indignation at the kidnapping of its national coordinator and cited witnesses who observed men in plainclothes carrying out the abduction.
Kam, a co-founder of the Balai Citoyen citizen movement, played a significant role in the fall of the regime led by Blaise Compaore in October 2014.
Recent months have witnessed a series of reported kidnappings, with individuals considered opposed to the military regime that came to power in a September 2022 coup under Captain Ibrahim Traore.
Ablasse Ouedraogo, former foreign minister and ex-deputy director general of the World Trade Organization, was notably abducted last month.
This month, former gendarmerie chief of staff Lieutenant-Colonel Evrard Somda faced a similar fate after being accused of involvement in a “plot against state security.” Influential businessman Sansan Anselme Kambou, linked to Somda, was kidnapped by intelligence agents in September.
The Sens group urgently called for Kam’s release, emphasising that such abductions pose a severe threat to the rule of law.
Burkina Faso has experienced two coups in eight months, both driven partly by discontent over the government’s inability to counter a persistent insurgency that emerged from Mali in 2015.
The violence has resulted in nearly 20,000 deaths and over two million people being internally displaced.
