Burkina Faso - April 2026

On 15 April, Territorial Administration Minister Emile Zerbo announced the dissolution of 118 NGOs and associations, many engaged in human-rights work, and banned their activities, citing non-compliance with a restrictive July 2025 law on freedom of association. Within a month of that law’s adoption, authorities had already revoked the registration of 21 rights groups and suspended 10 others. The dissolution came days after the government rejected, on 5 April, a Human Rights Watch report accusing state forces and allied militias of mass killings of civilians, and threatened measures against what they called imperialist outfits disguised as NGOs. International rights groups described the dissolution as a flagrant attack on freedom of association and called for it to be rescinded. 

Sources: International Crisis Group, Africa News, Africa Confidential, Amnesty International, Al Jazeera