According to a Human Rights Watch study released on Thursday, the military of Burkina Faso has intimidated communities in the northeast of the country with a wave of extrajudicial executions, forced disappearances, and incidents of torture.
Between February and May, there was unrest throughout the Séno province. The study names at least 27 individuals, the most of them were Fulani ethnic people, who were either executed without trial or vanished before being killed.
For seven years, a bloody struggle has been carried out in Burkina Faso by jihadi rebels affiliated with both the Islamic State and al-Qaida. As a result of the bloodshed that divided the nation and murdered thousands of people, there were two coups last year.
The assessment by the New York-based monitor follows an April atrocity in which locals said security forces killed at least 150 civilians in Karma, a village in the north close to the border with Mali.
In response to a request for comment regarding the report, a Burkina Faso government representative remained silent.
According to one account, ten Fulani men who lived in the village of Gangaol were all taken away on the backs of trucks, forced outside, and fired at.
“The soldiers fired, and I fled. I watched the others tumbling to the ground, but I kept running, the survivor was cited as saying in the HRW report. Two of the men who survived—the remaining four—had serious injuries.
Ilaria Allegrozzi, a senior regional researcher at Human Rights Watch, stated that the majority of the victims of the crimes in the cases she and her team had documented belonged to the Fulani ethnic group.
Due to allegations that they were involved with Islamic militants, the Fulani people in Burkina Faso and Mali have frequently been attacked by law enforcement and other groups.
The father of a teen kid who had been shot by what appeared to be government agents reportedly said, “The only explanation is hatred.
The increase in violence coincides with the administration of the country’s recent commitment to quadruple the amount of voluntary auxiliary military units, or VDPs, to 100,000.
Allegrozzi stated that the hiring of VDPs “has coincided with an increase in abuses by both sides.”
The presence of army recruiters in a Burkina Faso neighborhood frequently provokes violent intimidation by armed groups, much as Burkinabe military raid communities suspected of housing extremist elements.
Regarding the military forces, Allegrozzi remarked, “I think it’s also vital to realize that they are fighting a legitimate battle. An ambush by alleged extremist combatants claimed the lives of 34 military personnel as recently as Monday, according to a government news release.
We are challenging the manner in which this conflict is being handled since it violates human rights norms and disregards the safety of civilians, she added.
According to the research, targeting civilians is pointless, cruel, and ultimately useless.
In a report released on Thursday, Carine Kaneza Nantulya, the deputy director for Africa at Human Rights Watch, stated that the Burkinabe army’s executions and disappearances are not only war crimes but also cause animosity among the populations it targets, which encourages joining armed organizations.
The report emphasized that “Burkina Faso should ensure that provost marshals, who are responsible for discipline in the armed forces and detainees’ rights, are present during all military operations,” and that transitional authorities should cooperate with the U.N. human rights office to hold offenders within its military ranks accountable.
