Burkina Faso army executed more than 220 villagers in February, HRW says

In this file photo taken on October 8, 2022, Burkina Faso soldiers are seen in Ouagadougou during a burial of soldiers killed in an ambush in Gaskinde. © Olympia de Maismont, AFP

As part of a campaign against civilians suspected of working with Islamist terrorists, Burkina Faso's military summarily murdered roughly 223 villagers in February, including at least 56 children, Human Rights Watch (HRW) stated on Thursday.

 

The claims were made by the watchdog in a report that was based on its own inquiry into the alleged killing of about 170 people in attacks on three villages in the northern Yatenga province of Burkina Faso in late February. In a statement on March 1, a regional prosecutor situated in the province capital Ouahigouya initially brought attention to the killings.

 

The spokesperson for the Burkina Faso government did not respond to phone calls seeking comment on the HRW report. The ministry of defense did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Facebook and via email. A telephone number for the ministry listed on its website did not exist.

 

The prosecutor claimed in the statement that the attacks on the villages of Komsilga, Nodin, and Soro were the result of unknown attackers, and that an inquiry had been started.

No formal conclusions have been made public, as has been the case with other extrajudicial death cases in the nation.

 

Human rights organizations have previously charged that in punitive operations, the military in Burkina Faso, which is run by a junta, killed and attacked people who were thought to be working with insurgents.

 

The killings took place in tandem with a report on national television in Burkina Faso on February 25 regarding a significant attack on military objectives in Yatenga, one of the locations impacted by militant Islamist organizations operating in the northern regions of Burkina Faso and neighboring Sahel countries.

 

Reports of soldiers killing civilians have already been refuted by the authorities.

 

Between February 28 and March 31, Human Rights Watch conducted telephone interviews with 23 individuals, including eyewitness to the executions, local civil society activists, and representatives of foreign organizations. It also confirmed the video that survivors had posted.

 

Source: Reuters and CNN