Burkina Faso: A new report released by Human Rights Watch (HRW) has claimed Burkina Faso’s army killed 223 civilians, including 56 children. Recently published reports state that mass killings occurred in the northern villages of Nondin and Soro in February.
According to the International Rights Group, it seems that an across-the-board military movement is being carried out against civilians charged with partnership with armed packs. Nondin reported 44 deaths, including 20 children, and nearby Soro declared 179 deaths, including 36 children.
HRW stated that it communicated with dozens of spectators between February and March and examined videotapes and pictures shared by survivors. It even received lists of the sufferers’ identities produced by survivors and geolocated eight abundance burials based on satellite imagery from March.
A number of civilians, soldiers, and militia members were killed and many buildings were destroyed by armed groups in February, including military barracks and bases, as well as civilian infrastructure, like religious sites.
Although Mahamoudou Sana, the Defence Minister, condemned the ‘simultaneous and coordinated’ invasions. But he did not mention the bloodbath of civilians in Nondin and Soro. The ongoing conflict between armed groups associated with al-Qaeda and ISIS, as well as security forces, left civilians stranded in the middle of the warfare and propelled numerous to escape their residences.
Approximately half of Burkina Faso is currently not under the control of the government. The continuous brutality in the country resulted in the slayings of nearly 20,000 lives and over two million people were displaced. The current military government, headed by Captain Ibrahim Traore, took over governance in a coup in September 2022. This occurred eight months after a previous military coup that overthrew democratically elected President Roch Marc Kabore.
Traore’s focus is on reclaiming zones that are under the authority of armed groups. However, the army faced criticism from international rights groups for its crackdown on the sovereignty of speech and the oppression of detractors. This is due to the continuous security crisis in the country. The villages of Nondin and Soro, located in Burkina Faso’s Thiou district, are reportedly among multiple locations that are encircled by the al-Qaeda affiliate group Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), as per the report.
Tirana Hassan, HRW’s executive director commented that, “The massacres in Nondin and Soro villages are just the latest mass killings of civilians by the Burkina Faso military in their counterinsurgency operations.”
“The repeated failure of the Burkinabe authorities to prevent and investigate such atrocities underlines why international assistance is critical to support a credible investigation into possible crimes against humanity,” Hassan said, as HRW urged the United Nations and the African Union to sustain the inquiry by the Burkinabe authorities.
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