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Burkina Faso’s troops killed at least 1,255 civilians, including 193 children, between January 2023 and April 2025, a report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) has found.
The HRW report said the military and Volunteers for the Defense of the Homeland (VDP) carried out grave abuses against civilians during several dozen operations.
The abuses highlighted include unlawful killings and summary executions; torture and other ill-treatment; pillage and burning of homes; and looting of livestock.
“These abuses have also resulted in hundreds of thousands of people being displaced to other parts of the country and to neighbouring countries,” the report said.
In some incidents, Burkinabè troops and VDPs reportedly targeted civilians on suspicion of collaborating with JNIM, or as retaliation following JNIM attacks.
In other cases, troops in convoys were said to have targeted civilians, apparently because they lived in JNIM-controlled zones.
The JNIM (Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin), an Al-Qaeda affiliate, is the most active armed group in the Sahel region.
During the same period, HRW found that the JNIM killed at least 582 civilians, including 15 children.
The civilian killing by the Burkinabè military and VDPs was 73 percent higher than the JNIM attacks.
BURKINA FASO CONFLICT
The conflict in Burkina Faso began in 2016, when armed groups affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State made inroads into the country from neighbouring Mali.
The jihadists have since destabilised Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger — all junta-run countries — in their quest to establish an Islamic state in the broader Sahel region.
According to the HRW, JNIM is present in at least 11 of the 13 Burkinabè regions.
Successive Burkinabè governments have been unable to contain the spread of the insurgency, and the military has used the failure as justification for seizing power and prolonging a return to civilian democratic rule.
The Sahelian states have also moved away from traditional Western allies, especially France, which was a previous partner in the fight against Islamic militants, and have turned to Russia for military assistance — but there has been little progress in tackling the insecurity.
Ibrahim Traoré, Burkina’s junta leader, has repeatedly labelled reports of increased violence in his country as “propaganda”, insisting that his administration is crushing the jihadists.
