Islamist Armed Groups Threaten and Terrify Civilians in Burkina Faso
Islamist armed groups in Burkina Faso have escalated their attacks on civilians, massacring villagers, displaced people, and Christian worshipers, Human Rights Watch said today. Since February 2024, the armed groups have killed at least 128 civilians across the country in seven attacks that violated international humanitarian law and constitute war crimes.
Government forces have been fighting insurgencies by the Al-Qaeda-linked Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wa al-Muslimeen, JNIM) and the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS), since the armed groups entered Burkina Faso from Mali in 2016. The two Islamist armed groups control large swathes of Burkinabè territory; they have attacked civilians as well as government security forces, and fought each other.
“We are witnessing an incredibly concerning surge in Islamist violence in Burkina Faso. The Islamist armed groups’ massacres of villagers, worshipers, and displaced people are not only war crimes, but a cruel affront to human decency,” said Ilaria Allegrozzi, senior Sahel researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The leaders of the Islamist armed groups should immediately end these deadly attacks on civilians.”
From May to July, Human Rights Watch interviewed 37 people, including 31 witnesses to attacks on civilians. Human Rights Watch wrote to the Burkina Faso justice minister on June 26 and the country’s ambassador to the United States on July 30, sharing research findings and requesting responses to specific questions. The justice minister responded to Human Rights Watch on August 28.
The ISGS claimed responsibility for a February attack on a church in the village of Essakane, Sahel region, that killed at least 12 civilians. No warring party has claimed responsibility for the other documented attacks against civilians. Witnesses said they believed the attackers were members of Islamist armed groups because of their mode of operations, choice of targets, and clothing, including turbans similar to those worn during these groups’ previous attacks.
Witnesses to several attacks believed they were going to retaliate against local communities for their alleged collaboration with government security forces and allied civilian auxiliaries. In May, Islamist fighters attacked an internally displaced persons (IDP) camp in Goubré, North region, killing over 70 people, allegedly to punish those unwilling to submit to the group’s rule.
The February attack on church worshipers in Essakane resulted in the deaths of at least 12 civilians. “I saw a huge pool of blood and traces of blood all over the church, as well as bullet marks on the benches,” said a 28-year-old man who lost his 49-year-old brother, a teacher, in the attack. “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.”
President Ibrahim Traoré, since taking power in a September 2022 military coup, 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 VDPs). Former President Roch Marc Christian Kaboré initially created the VDPs in January 2020 to strengthen local protection against Islamist armed groups. In October 2022, the military authorities opened a campaign to recruit 50,000 more members. The Islamist armed groups responded by attacking villages they accused of supporting the VDPs. The justice minister, in his response to Human Rights Watch, said that joint operations by Burkinabè forces and VDPs “reconquer[ed] several localities” held by Islamist armed groups, and permitted the resettlement of displaced people and the reopening of educational and health facilities.
“The jihadists opened fire in the village indiscriminately,” said a 35-year-old farmer who witnessed an attack by alleged JNIM fighters in the town of Sindo, Hauts-Bassins region, on June 11. “I hid in a shop, and I could hear heavy gunshots above my head. Some of them hit the shop, others fell into the courtyard.”
Human Rights Watch has previously documented other Islamist armed group abuses in Burkina Faso, including summary executions, sexual violence, abductions, and pillaging. The groups have also attacked students, teachers, and schools; and continue to besiege several localities across the country, planting explosive devices along the roads leading to the towns, and cutting residents off from food, basic services, and aid.
The Burkina Faso armed forces and VDPs have also committed serious abuses during operations against Islamist armed groups.
The Burkinabè government has primary responsibility under international law for ensuring justice for the most serious crimes, but has made scant progress in investigating, much less prosecuting, those responsible for the many grave offenses committed as part of the armed conflict since 2016. The justice minister, in his response to Human Rights Watch, said that “all allegations of human rights violations or abuses committed by terrorists are subject to investigations aimed at determining responsibility and sanctioning the perpetrators. … [S]everal judicial investigations have been initiated by military prosecutors or civilian courts.”
The fighting between Burkina Faso government forces and the Islamist armed groups is governed by the laws of war for a non-international armed conflict. Applicable law includes Common Article 3 to the 1949 Geneva Conventions and other treaty and customary laws of war, which apply to non-state armed groups as well as national armed forces. The laws of war prohibit attacks on civilians, summary executions, torture and other ill-treatment, sexual violence, and looting. Serious violations of the laws of war committed by individuals with criminal intent, including as a matter of command responsibility, are war crimes.
The civilian toll in Burkina Faso’s ongoing conflict underlines the challenges of African regional responses to the violence in the country and in the entire Sahel region. The African Union (AU), including the AU Peace and Security Council, and the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR), has not sufficiently addressed conflict-related abuses, improved protection of civilians, or sought justice for the abuses.
In July 2023, the AU council visited Burkina Faso and committed to increase AU humanitarian support for the country. The council, however, did not address impunity as a key driver of abuse, or act further to protect civilians or hold accountable those responsible for grave abuses.
The ACHPR has held four sessions between August 2023 and June 2024 without sufficiently discussing the human rights situation in Burkina Faso, despite considerable evidence of the serious abuses.
“The AU Peace and Security Council needs to address the upsurge in atrocities in Burkina Faso and the deteriorating situation in the country,” Allegrozzi said. “The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights should investigate ongoing abuses and provide meaningful options for accountability.”
For witness accounts and other details, please see below. The names of those interviewed have been withheld for their protection.
Unlawful Attacks by Islamist Armed Groups Since February 2024
Over 26,000 people have been killed during the conflict since 2016, including about 15,500 since the military coup in September 2022, and over 6,000 since January, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (ACLED).
The ACLED reported that Islamist armed groups killed 1,004 civilians in 259 attacks between January and August, compared to the 1,185 civilians in 413 attacks in the same period last year. These figures do not include the 100 to 400 civilians killed during the August 24 attack on the city of Barsalogho, Sanmatenga province, for which the JNIM claimed responsibility. Human Rights Watch is investigating the attack.
The ACLED reported that the JNIM is active in 11 out of 13 of Burkina Faso’s regions. The ISGS thus far has only operated in the Sahel region, where the two armed groups have clashed.
