Over 26,000 Killed in Burkina Faso Since Conflict Began in 2016

More than 26,000 people have been killed in the conflict since 2016, including around 15,500 since the military coup in September 2022 and more than 6,000 since January this year," according to figures released by Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (ACLED), cited in the statement by the non-governmental organization (NGO).

Throughout this year, "Islamist armed groups in Burkina Faso have intensified their attacks on civilians, massacring villagers, displaced people and Christian worshippers," HRW said.

Government forces have been battling insurgencies by the al-Qaida-linked Group d'Support de l'Islam et des Moslems (GSIM) and the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS) since the armed groups entered Burkina Faso from Mali in 2016, it said.

“The two Islamist armed groups control large areas of Burkina Faso territory, have attacked civilians and government security forces, and have fought each other,” it said.

“We are witnessing an incredibly worrying increase in terrorist violence in Burkina Faso,” HRW’s senior Sahel researcher, Ilaria Allegrozzi, was quoted in the statement.

For her, the leaders of the Islamist armed groups must immediately end these deadly attacks on civilians.

Since taking power in a military coup in September 2022, President Ibrahim Traoré has increased the use of civilian auxiliaries called Volunteers for the Defense of the Homeland (‘Volontaires pour la défense de la patrie’, commonly known as VDP), the NGO said.

Former President Roch Marc Christian Kaboré initially created the VDP in January 2020 to strengthen local protection against terrorist armed groups, it explained.

The armed rebel groups responded by attacking villages they accused of supporting the VDPs.

Asked by HRW about the use of these civilians, Burkina Faso’s justice minister said that joint operations between Burkinabe forces and the VDPs “recaptured several towns” held by the rebels and allowed the resettlement of displaced people and the reopening of educational and health facilities.

HRW has documented abuses committed by armed groups in Burkina Faso, including summary executions, sexual violence, kidnappings and looting.

“The groups have also attacked students, teachers and schools and continue to annex several towns across the country, placing explosive devices along roads leading to towns and cutting off residents’ access to food, basic services and aid,” the NGO lamented.

However, “the armed forces and the VDPs of Burkina Faso have also committed serious abuses during operations against the terrorists,” it stressed.

"The Burkinabé government has the primary responsibility under international law to ensure justice for the most serious crimes, but it has made little progress in investigating, let alone prosecuting, those responsible for the many serious crimes committed in the context of the armed conflict since 2016," it said.

For the NGO, the number of civilian deaths since 2016 highlights "the challenges of African regional responses to violence in the country and across the Sahel region."

"The African Union (AU), including the AU Peace and Security Council and the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights (ACHPR), has failed to sufficiently address conflict-related abuses, improve the protection of civilians, or seek justice for abuses," it warned.