Groups with links to al-Qaeda and ISIL are accused of ‘massacring villagers, displaced people, and Christian worshippers’.
People killed by al-Qaeda-linked JNIM in August outside the town of Barsalogho, Burkina Faso. Ordered by the authorities to dig trenches, they were killed in reprisals by the armed group [File: Reuters]
Armed groups with links to al-Qaeda and ISIL (ISIS) have escalated attacks on civilians in Burkina Faso, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has said in a report.
Publishing the report on Wednesday, the NGO documented the killing of at least 128 civilians in seven attacks by “armed groups” across the country since February 2024 that “violated international humanitarian law and constitute war crimes”.
The report states that the groups have been “massacring villagers, displaced people, and Christian worshippers”.
“We are witnessing an incredibly concerning surge in Islamist violence,” said Ilaria Allegrozzi, senior Sahel researcher at HRW. She called on the leaders of the groups to cease their “deadly attacks”.
Led by the military government of Ibrahim Traore, the West African nation has been grappling with an armed rebellion by the ISIL affiliate in the Greater Sahara (ISGS) and the al-Qaeda-linked Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) since they moved into Burkina Faso from neighbouring Mali in 2016.
Traore has pushed for civilians to play a role in fighting the groups. He has recruited thousands of volunteer army auxiliaries and forced civilians to dig defensive trenches.
Traore has pushed for civilians to play a role in fighting the groups. He has recruited thousands of volunteer army auxiliaries and forced civilians to dig defensive trenches.
The Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project was cited in the report as saying more than 26,000 people had been killed – including soldiers, militiamen and civilians – in Burkina Faso since 2016.
Source: Al Jazeera
