Jihadist groups in Burkina Faso have intensified assaults on civilians, frequently in retaliation against communities that either resist joining their forces or are suspected of aiding government troops, Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported on Wednesday.
The West African nation, under a military junta, has struggled with Islamist militants—some linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State—since the insurgency spilled over from neighboring Mali nearly a decade ago.
Military leader Ibrahim Traore has advocated for civilian involvement in combating the militants, enlisting thousands of volunteer army auxiliaries, known as VDPs, and more recently mandating civilians to dig defensive trenches.
In response, jihadists have escalated their deadly attacks on civilians, according to HRW.
The organization documented seven attacks between February and June, resulting in at least 128 civilian deaths, with insurgents targeting villages, a camp for displaced people, and worshippers in a Catholic church.
The al Qaeda-linked group Jama’a Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin (JNIM) claimed responsibility for six of the documented attacks.
The group has previously warned civilians against cooperating with the army, and witnesses informed Human Rights Watch (HRW) that this fueled the violence. Some villagers were killed after being forced by authorities to return to areas from which jihadists had expelled them, as some had joined the VDPs.
“We are between a rock and a hard place,” a 56-year-old villager told HRW. ISIS-affiliated Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS) took responsibility for the church massacre in February, reportedly in retaliation against Christians who refused to renounce their faith, according to witnesses.
The junta, which has previously condemned HRW’s findings of military forces executing civilians suspected of aiding jihadists, issued a rare written response to the watchdog’s August report.
In a written response, the justice minister refuted HRW’s claim that the prosecution of serious crimes had been slow since the conflict began, asserting that all alleged human rights violations and abuses by insurgents were being actively investigated.
The minister further stated that displaced individuals had voluntarily returned to areas retaken and secured by security forces.
A JNIM attack from late August, where civilians were forced to dig trenches around Barsalogho in the north-central region, was not included in the HRW report. Hundreds of people were shot dead, making it one of the deadliest events in Burkina Faso’s history.
When Traore took power in September 2022, following the second coup in Burkina Faso that year, he vowed to outperform his predecessors, partly capitalizing on public frustration over escalating violence.
However, according to analysts, rights groups, and humanitarian workers, the security situation has worsened under his leadership, and his regime has also intensified its crackdown on dissent.
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