Diallo was abducted Friday by several men in plain clothes outside government offices, the Citizens Coalition for the Sahel said.

"Daouda Diallo was abducted by at least four unidentified men on Friday 1st of December 2023 at around 3:00 pm outside the passport offices in Ouagadougou, where he had gone to renew his travel documents," the group of NGOs said.

There has been no news of Diallo or any information about the reason for his abduction since, it said.

"The abduction of a leading activist in broad daylight outside the premises of a public service calls for an immediate response from the government," the coalition said.

It called for his immediate release, as well as "guarantees of his physical and psychological integrity."

On Friday evening, the Collective Against Impunity and the Stigmatisation of Communities (CISC), of which Diallo is secretary general, "strongly condemned" an "umpteenth arbitrary kidnapping" in calling for his release.

Winner of the prestigious Martin Ennals Prize for human rights defenders in 2022, Diallo was one of a number of voices critical of the regime in Burkina Faso who had recently been "requisitioned" to take part in the fight against jihadists, according to Human Rights Watch.

Army captain Ibrahim Traore, who came to power in a coup in September 2022, signed a one-year "general mobilisation" decree in April, allowing for "young people aged 18 and over" to be requisitioned to fight a jihadist insurgency that has killed thousands of civilians and members of the security forces.

On Sunday, the Citizens Coalition for the Sahel said that the decree "cannot be used as a pretext to arbitrarily target independent voices and silence them."

Insurgents affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group have fought the state since 2015 after a rebellion in neighbouring Mali spilled over.