At least 70 people, mostly children and the elderly, died in killings in northern Burkina Faso in early November. These were massacres of civilians, the perpetrators of which are unknown, and for which the EU and the United States requested an investigation.
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According to a preliminary report sent on Monday by Faso prosecutor Simon Gnanou, the killings carried out on November 5 in the village of Zaongo claimed 70 lives, “mainly children and the elderly.”
He specifies that “the perpetrators of the atrocities remain unknown at this time.”
On Sunday, the European Union mentioned this massacre and a possible death toll of around a hundred and called on the authorities in Ouagadougou to “shed light on the matter.”
For its part, the American government, through the Director of African Affairs at the US State Department, Molly Phee, condemned this “attack in the strongest possible terms” and called for an investigation to be opened.
The prosecutor said on Monday that hearing the “parents of the victims and injured people will make it possible to determine the exact number of deaths.”
A security source told AFP on Sunday that an investigation had been launched.
“The massacre occurred two days after fighting between security forces and terrorists. Zaongo was one of the few villages in the area that had not yet been evacuated by terrorists. “Some suspected the residents of collaborating with them,” one resident, who wished to remain anonymous, told AFP.
Since 2015, Burkina Faso has been mired in a spiral of violence attributed to jihadist groups linked to al-Qaeda and the Islamic State (IS) group. More than 17,000 civilians and military personnel died.
Many places affected by the violence were abandoned, resulting in more than two million internally displaced people.
Another massacre in April
The public prosecutor explained that he was on site on November 11th with a team consisting in particular of a military investigating judge, members of the special brigade for anti-terror investigations and the fight against organized crime, and gendarmes.
He also praised the defense and security forces who “carried out mine clearance” and repelled “an attack on the convoy” along the route in this area where jihadist groups operate.
In April, an investigation was launched in Burkina after another massacre of 136 people – including 50 women and 21 children – by men wearing military uniforms in Karma, in the north of the country, on April 20.
The president of the transition, Captain Ibrahim Traoré, then called for avoiding “hasty conclusions” and not immediately blaming the army for this killing.
Since then, there has been no official communication regarding the results of this investigation.
Captain Traoré, who came to power in a coup in September 2022, claims to make the anti-jihadist fight his priority.
In April, he signed a year-long decree on “general mobilization,” allowing the recruitment of “youths aged 18 and over” to fight jihadists if necessary.
HRW reported on a “dozen dissidents” who were “called up by the security forces” and “requisitioned to take part in government security operations.”