A human rights NGO in Burkina Faso has accused the army of killing at least 25 civilians, including women and a baby, in the east of the country this week, according to a statement received by AFP on Friday.
Neither the army nor the Burkinabe government initially responded to these allegations. Eastern Burkina is one of the regions hardest hit by violence from jihadist groups that the army and its auxiliaries are fighting.
On Wednesday evening (February 1), “the Collective Against Impunity and Community Stigma (CISC) was seized from several relatives of victims” who “reported allegations of summary executions of civilians attributed to the bodies of Burkinabe Defense and Security Forces (FDS) in Piega, Sakoani and Kankangou localities,” said a CISC press release sent to AFP on Friday.
Those executions took place during the passage of a convoy of “more than a hundred vehicles” at those three locations along National Road 4 (RN4) that set out for the Boungou Gold Mine on Wednesday and “were escorted by dozens of 4×4 pickup vehicles carrying wear several FDS in military uniform according to CISC.
Twelve dead (including three women and a baby) are mentioned in the village of Sakoani, some 125 km from Fada N’Gourma, the capital of the Eastern Region, seven (including four women) in the village of Piega, 60 km from Fada N’ Gourma and six in the hamlet of Kankangou in the territory of the village of Sampiéri, according to the CISC.
Sakoani residents contacted by AFP testified to the discovery of “eleven dead bodies” after the convoy’s passage.
“The record continues to grow as real-world information reaches us,” according to the CISC.
According to the NGO, consistent testimonies describe the victims as “unarmed civilians”.
The CISC calls for an end to these “crimes against humanity” and claims to continue “collecting information to bring those responsible and their supporters to justice” and calls for “the opening of an independent and impartial body into these crimes”.
Other cases of extrajudicial executions are regularly reported by the population of several regions of Burkina, the CISC confirms.
On New Year’s Eve, civilian army auxiliaries were accused of killing 28 people in north-west Burkina.
Since 2015, Burkina Faso has faced increasing attacks from jihadist groups linked to al-Qaeda and the Islamic State.
They have left thousands dead and at least two million displaced, and are partly behind two military coups in 2022.