Norbert Zongo

Norbert Zongo (31 July 1949 – 13 December 1998), also known under the pen name of Henri Segbo or H.S., was a Burkinabé investigative journalist who managed the newspaper L'Indépendant in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.

Under Zongo's supervision, L'Indépendant exposed extortion and impunity within the government of Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaoré.

He was assassinated after his newspaper began investigating the murder of a driver who had worked for the brother of Compaoré.

Norbert Zongo was born in the Koudougou region, French Upper Volta on 31 July 1949 into the Gnougnoossi family, a prominent subset of the Mossi people.

While in secondary school in 1964, he created a newspaper, La Voix du Cours Normal, writing bulletins on his exercise sheets with information gleaned from morning broadcasts from Radio France Internationale, BBC World Service, and other international radio stations.

School officials eventually banned his publication after it discussed political topics.

After high school, Zongo pursued legal studies at University of Abidjan in Côte d'Ivoire and journalism at the University of Benin in Togo.

The latter university expelled him and he was imprisoned in Burkina Faso after he published his political novel Le Parachutage.

He was able to finish his education in journalism at the University of Yaoundé in Cameroon.

Zongo was a supporter of human rights and also helped found the Movement for Human and Peoples' Rights, an organization in Burkina Faso.

Norbert Zongo's remains are buried in Gounghin Military Cemetery located just east of Ouagadougou.

In 1971, Norbert Zongo began his career as a teacher in Ouagadougou, Kadiogo Province.

Zongo was also a writer.

His first novel Le Parachutage was a thinly disguised political critique of Togo's President Gnassingbé Eyadema set in the post-colonial era.

In the preface of the novel in 1988, Zongo mentions being arrested and beaten for writing it.

He followed this novel with the colonial setting for Rougebeinga two years later, which was also political satire of leadership.

In 1991, Zongo, after working for the national daily paper Sidwaya, founded La Clef with Saturnin Ki.

It was the first newspaper in Burkina Faso to openly criticism the government, with Zongo contributing under the pseudonym Henri Sebgo (or H.S.).

The paper folded in 1993.

That June, Zongo founded the weekly L'Indépendant, which primarily covered government corruption.

In 1996, he began investigating a series of fraud and graft cases involving several mining and manufacturing companies with ties to top political officials and President Blaise Compaoré's family.

His resulting work severely embarrassed the government.

The following year, Zongo directly criticized the Parliament's decision to amend the Constitution to allow Compaoré to seek a third term.

In December 1997, a suspicious disappearance and possible murder of David Ouedraogo, the driver of François Compaoré (President Blaise Campaoré's brother), prompted Zongo to investigate.

Ouedrago was tortured and killed for allegedly stealing large sums of money.

Zongo reported the case and wrote small excerpts every week for his newspaper.

He began getting death threats and the government ignored them.

His wife, Genevieve Zongo, confirmed that he was receiving death threats from 1997 to his death in 1998.

She was told that Norbert would often be followed by a car while on his motorbike.

Zongo was also approached to convince him to drop his investigation, but he continued until his death.

On December 13, 1998, four bodies were found shot and burned in a Toyota Land cruiser on the side of the road in Sapouy, Ziro Province.

The remains were identified as Norbert Zongo; Zongo's brother Yembi Ernest Zongo; Blaise Ilboudo, a colleague; and Abdouleye Ablassé Nikiema, who was Zongo's driver.

Zongo's death triggered a national crisis and violent protests within Burkina Faso.

In January 1999, François Compaoré was charged with murder and harboring the body of the victim in connection with the death of Ouedraogo.

The charges were later dropped by a military tribunal after François Compaoré appealed against them.

Six presidential body guards were identified as suspects in the murder.

In August 2000, five members of the presidential security were charged for the murder of Ouedraogo.

Marcel Kafando, Edmond Koama and Ousseini Yaro, who are also suspects in the Norbert Zongo case, were convicted and sentenced to lengthy prison terms.

Edmond Koama died on January 4, 2001.

Marcel Kafando was the only one who was charged for the crime, but the charges were later dropped on July 19, 2006.