Burkina Faso has expelled reporters of French newspapers Le Monde and Liberation, French media reported on Sunday.
Sophie Douce from Le Monde Afrique and Agnes Faivre from Liberation were ordered by the Burkinabe authorities to leave the capital Ouagadougou on Saturday, according to Le Monde.
The verbal notification by agents from the Burkinabe state security department, asking the journalists to leave the country within 24 hours, said their accreditation and press cards are canceled, the report noted. The reasons for the deportation are unclear.
The two journalists have arrived in Paris on Sunday following their exit from Burkina Faso, French media report.
The expulsion of the journalists comes barely a week after Burkina Faso’s military government suspended French government-funded international news channel, France24 after the TV channel aired an interview with the head of al Qaeda’s North African wing.
The government accused France 24 of ''not only acting as a mouthpiece for these terrorists, but worse, it is providing a space for the legitimisation of terrorist actions and hate speech,”
Relations between Paris and Ouagadougou have deteriorated sharply since Burkina Faso’s military seized power in a coup in October last year.
Earlier this year, Burkina Faso gave France, its former coloniser, a month to pull out its troops as it ended a military deal that allowed French forces to fight insurgent groups.
