A 28-year-old Ghanaian man, Zakaria Abubakari from Savelugu, has shared his painful experience after spending 77 days in detention in Burkina Faso following his arrest during a military operation.
According to Zakaria, he was arrested on February 26, 2026, around 7:00 p.m. in Kongoussi while staying in the house of a kind stranger, whom he described as a Mossi man he did not personally know.
He explained that he was passing through the area on his way to an undisclosed destination in Mali when armed soldiers suddenly entered the house and arrested him.
Zakaria said the soldiers blindfolded him immediately after the arrest and took him to a military detention centre in Kaya, where he spent 13 days in custody.
After that, he was moved to another unknown location, where he remained for about 50 days before later being transferred to Ouagadougou.
He spent a few more days in police custody there before finally being released in late April.
According to him, security officers repeatedly questioned him about why he was in Kongoussi, an area known for attacks and activities linked to armed extremist groups, especially Jama’at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin.
Zakaria said that after investigations, authorities found no evidence connecting him to any jihadist group.
He, however, said none of his belongings, including his clothes, were returned to him after his release.
“They only took me to a bus station barefoot and empty-handed and told me to return to Ghana,” he recounted.
Zakaria explained that he survived the journey back home with help from kind-hearted people who gave him transport money after hearing his story.
He has now safely reunited with his family in Ghana after returning from Burkina Faso.
Meanwhile, Ghanaian intelligence agencies are still searching for another Ghanaian, Ibrahim Sadat, a native of Wuru in the Sissala District of the Upper West Region.
Reports say Ibrahim was arrested by Burkinabe security officers on March 3, 2026, after crossing into the town of Kounou in Burkina Faso.
The incident also comes after the disappearance of seven Ghanaians from the Bawku Municipality in 2023.
The seven men were reportedly invited by suspected Burkinabe military personnel to Bittou for a cattle identification exercise.
According to reports, armed men later intercepted them in the town of Nohao, and since then, they have not been seen or heard from.
