For years, land and housing have stood at the center of political tension in Burkina Faso. The West African country, already plagued by insecurity, poverty, and displacement caused by conflict, is also experiencing a worsening housing crisis. But instead of addressing the urgent need for affordable homes, evidence now shows that politicians and their allies may have profited from a system rife with abuse, speculation, and land grabbing.

A parliamentary report completed in 2020, recently obtained by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), has revealed extensive irregularities in the country’s real estate sector. Yet the findings were never released to the public. According to anti-corruption activists, the document was deliberately withheld to shield powerful figures within the ruling party of the time, the People’s Movement for Progress (MPP), from scrutiny.

The report’s contents expose how municipal councils granted land parcels far larger than what the law allowed, directly benefiting companies tied to ruling party politicians.

The commission of inquiry that produced the report was set up in 2020, when the MPP still controlled parliament. Its findings were supposed to be made public before that year’s national elections. Instead, the report was quietly shelved.

Sagado Nacanabo, a senior figure in the Réseau National de Lutte Anti-Corruption (REN-LAC), said the withholding of the report was intentional. The government, he claimed, suppressed it to protect “certain regime leaders or their economic allies” from political fallout ahead of elections.

“Land has always been one of the main sources of illicit enrichment for political leaders and their allies,” Nacanabo told OCCRP. “This report clearly showed that.”

The revelations highlight a broader pattern: in Burkina Faso, the land........

© Blitz