Burkina Faso’s junta halts radio station services over Niger Coup criticism

The junta-led government of Burkina Faso has halted one of the country’s most popular radio stations after it broadcast an interview deemed “insulting” to Niger’s new military leaders.

Radio Omega was shut down immediately on Thursday, “until further notice,” stated Communications Minister Rimtalba Jean Emmanuel Ouedraogo in a statement.

He claimed that the action was “in the higher interests of the country.

Following the release of the statement late on Thursday, the station, which is a part of the Omega media empire owned by journalist and former foreign minister Alpha Barry, stopped airing programs.

The channel had aired an interview with Ousmane Abdoul Moumouni, the spokesperson for a recently formed Niger group working to restore President Mohamed Bazoum to power.

On July 26, the Presidential Guard deposed the nation’s elected president.

According to Ouedraogo, a government spokesperson, Moumouni made “insulting remarks about the new Niger authorities.”

He claimed that his organization “clearly campaigns for violence and war against the sovereign people of Niger” and seeks to reestablish Bazoum “by all means.”.

Burkina Faso experienced two military takeovers in the past year, each partly motivated by resentment over the country’s inability to quell a raging insurgency by jihadists, similar to how Mali and Niger did.

It quickly expressed support for the new Niger government and joined Mali in announcing that any military action to restore Bazoum would be viewed as a “declaration of war” against them.

Recently, the Burkinabe government expelled the correspondents of the French newspapers Liberation and Le Monde and suspended the French TV networks France24, LCI, and Radio France Internationale.