On Friday, March 27, 2026, a former Minister of Humanitarian Action of Burkina Faso was sentenced to five years in prison for embezzlement of public funds, illicit enrichment, and money laundering, according to a court decision.

The former minister's judgment follows a previous trial at the end of which four civil servants from the same ministry had been sentenced, in late 2024, to prison terms for embezzling funds by forging signatures on several hundred public treasury checks.

Estimated at 2.8 billion CFA francs (4.2 million euros), these funds were intended to support vulnerable people or those affected by the jihadist violence plaguing the country. However, the civil servants had disputed the amounts presented by the prosecutor, denouncing hierarchical superiors, including former Minister of Humanitarian Action Laure Zongo Hien, who, according to them, had also benefited from the embezzled funds.

Tried alongside her, the former director of financial management of the ministry, Yé Yaké Camille, was found guilty of the same offenses, but involving much higher amounts. He was sentenced to 11 years in prison and a fine of 462 million CFA francs (705,000 euros).

Two other collaborators were respectively sentenced to five years in prison and 15 months of suspended prison sentence in this case.