Islamist Militants Terrorize Burkina Faso Civilians

Islamic organizations intensify their reprisals against civilians in Burkina Faso, according to HRW...

Attacks are carried out by Burkina Faso insurgents against those who oppose them.

According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), attacks on civilians by Islamist groups in Burkina Faso have escalated. On Wednesday, September 18, HRW issued a warning, noting that the jihadists often attack populations that either reject their ideology or are suspected of collaborating with the government.

Islamist insurgents have been a problem for the West African nation ruled by a junta. Some were connected to the Islamic State and al Qaeda since these organizations arrived from nearby Mali about ten years ago.

Ibrahim Traore, a military official, has called on citizens to help fight the insurgency. He has organized thousands of volunteers through organizations like the Volunteers for the Defense of the Homeland (VDP) and has ordered civilians to dig defensive trenches. As a result, Islamists have attacked civilians with ever-greater ferocity, according to HRW. 

HRW identified seven attacks between February and June that targeted villages, a camp for internally displaced people, and worshippers in a Catholic church, resulting in at least 128 civilian casualties. Six of the attacks were attributed to Jama'a Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin (JNIM), an Al Qaeda offshoot.

Human Rights Watch was informed by witnesses that the organization had previously warned against civilians who were thought to be working with the military, and that this had motivated the attacks. Because some of the villagers had joined the VDPs, some were slain when authorities forced them to return to areas from which they had been driven by jihadists.

“We are between a rock and a hard place,” a 56-year-old villager told HRW.

Human Rights Watch reported in August that military forces were killing people suspected of working with terrorists. The junta, which has repeatedly chastised the organization for its reporting, responded to the findings in a rare written statement. 

HRW's claim that serious crime prosecutions have lagged since the start of the conflict was refuted by the justice minister in a letter, who said that all claims of insurgent abuses and violations of human rights are being looked into. 

It was also mentioned by the minister that many who had been displaced had willingly returned to regions that security personnel had secured and taken back.

One of the bloodiest episodes in Burkina Faso's history, the JNIM attack on civilians ordered to dig trenches in the town of Barsalogho in the north-central region at the end of August resulted in hundreds of deaths; this incident was not mentioned in the HRW report. 

Following the second coup in Burkina Faso that year, which was partly motivated by public outrage at the country's worsening violence, Traore came to power in September 2022 with the pledge to do better than his predecessors.

Human rights groups, analysts, and aid workers, however, suggest that under his reign, the security situation has gotten worse and that the crackdown on dissent has gotten more intense.