Burkina Faso has extended its suspension to additional media organizations, including French newspaper Le Monde, British publication The Guardian, German broadcaster Deutsche Welle, and French broadcaster TV5 Monde.

Burkina Faso has recently issued suspensions against several international news organizations, with some facing indefinite suspensions. The affected entities include French newspaper Le Monde, British publication The Guardian, German broadcaster Deutsche Welle, and French broadcaster TV5 Monde, as stated by the country's communications regulator, the CSC.

These suspensions were enacted due to the organizations' coverage of a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report alleging attacks on civilians by the army in its efforts against insurgents, which the ruling junta dismissed as baseless. Additionally, the latest statement, dated Saturday, also named French regional newspaper Ouest-France, APAnews, and Agence Ecofin among the suspended media outlets.

On Thursday, the CSC announced its directive to internet service providers, instructing them to suspend access to the BBC, VOA, and Human Rights Watch in Burkina Faso for a two-week period.

Burkina Faso's military rulers have rebuffed the accusations by HRW, dismissing them as "baseless." HRW claimed that Burkina Faso soldiers were responsible for the deaths of at least 223 villagers in two attacks on February 25.

Communications Minister Rimtalba Jean Emmanuel Ouedraogo stated late Saturday that the incidents in Nodin and Soro prompted a legal inquiry.

He expressed surprise that HRW, during the ongoing inquiry to establish facts and identify those responsible, has already pronounced judgment by identifying "the guilty" with what he termed as boundless imagination.

HRW characterized the massacre as "one of the most severe instances of army abuse in Burkina Faso since 2015."

"These large-scale killings... seem to be part of a widespread military campaign targeting civilians accused of collaborating with armed groups, potentially constituting crimes against humanity," stated the New York-based organization on Thursday.

According to the Burkina Faso statement, "The media campaign orchestrated around these allegations clearly demonstrates the undisclosed intention... to discredit our armed forces."

The West African nation, under military governance since 2022, has been ravaged by an insurgency originating from neighboring Mali in 2015.

Thousands of civilians, soldiers, and police officers have been killed, two million individuals have been displaced, and mounting resentment within the military over the escalating casualties triggered two coups in 2022.