Terrorist groups in Burkina Faso have significantly intensified their attacks on civilians in recent months, “massacring villagers, displaced people, and Christian worshippers,” Human Rights Watch reported on Wednesday.
Since February 2024, HRW has noted that terrorists have carried out seven attacks, resulting in the deaths of at least 128 civilians and “violated international humanitarian law.”
“We are witnessing an incredibly concerning surge in Islamist violence in Burkina Faso. The Islamist armed groups’ massacres of villagers, worshippers, and displaced people are not only war crimes but a cruel affront to human decency,” said Ilaria Allegrozzi, senior Sahel researcher at HRW.
The report, filled with eyewitness accounts, details horrific atrocities, including door-to-door executions, throat-slitting, dismemberment of bodies, and the rape of women.
One attack on church worshippers in Essakane in February left 12 dead.
A survivor recounted, “I saw a huge pool of blood and traces of blood all over the church, as well as bullet marks on the benches.” He tragically lost his 49-year-old brother, a teacher, to the assailants. “At the cemetery, I saw 12 bodies, including my brother’s body, with bullet wounds in the chest and in the back, and his mouth covered with blood.”
The Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED) reported that more than 26,000 people—soldiers, militiamen, and civilians—have been killed in Burkina Faso since the conflict began in 2016. In the first eight months of this year alone, ACLED recorded over 6,000 deaths, including around 1,000 civilians killed by Islamist armed groups.
HRW noted that these figures do not include the estimated 100 to 400 civilians killed in an attack on August 24 in Barsalogho, located in the centre of the country.
“We are caught between a rock and a hard place,” said a resident of Niamana in the far west. “On the one hand, the authorities are pushing us to return to villages where security is not guaranteed, and on the other, the jihadists attack us when we return to our fields and homes,” the resident lamented, a sentiment echoed by others.
When HRW inquired about the allegations of forced returns, the country’s justice minister, Edasso Rodrigue Bayala, asserted that the return of displaced persons is voluntary and “preceded by actions to secure localities and reopen basic social services.”
The Al-Qaeda-linked Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal Muslimeen operates in 11 out of 13 regions in Burkina Faso, according to ACLED. The group also frequently conducts attacks in neighbouring Niger and Mali, where it claimed responsibility for an attack on Tuesday in the Malian capital, Bamako, targeting a military airport and a police training camp.
The HRW report highlights the challenges faced by Captain Ibrahim Traore’s military junta in attempting to control the escalating jihadist violence in Burkina Faso. When Traore assumed power following a coup in September 2022, he pledged to regain control of the country within “six months” and promised to prioritise the fight against “terrorism.”
Local sources reported on Tuesday that many residents of the key northern town of Djibo have fled their homes since September 14 after jihadists ordered them to vacate their districts or face execution. Some approached a military camp in the town, seeking protection, according to one local resident.
Djibo is home to tens of thousands of people who have sought refuge there after fleeing their villages to escape jihadist violence in recent years.