Human Rights Watch: The Burkina Faso soldiers killed 223 civilians in a retaliatory attack

Human Rights Watch claims that on one day this year, Burkina Faso’s soldiers slaughtered over 220 civilians—at least 56 of them were children.

In the raids on February 25, the army of Burkina Faso killed 179 people in the village of Soro and 44 more in the adjoining village of Nondin, according to a BBC report citing an HRW investigation.

The mass murders were dubbed “among the worst army abuse” episodes in the nation in over ten years by HRW.

The Burkinabe authorities, according to the BBC, have not responded to the report.

Aly Benjamin Coulibaly, the public prosecutor, made an appeal last month for witnesses to identify the group responsible for the horrific executions. He listed the first fatality toll at 170.

Villagers who survived the attack told HRW that a military convoy with over 100 soldiers descended on Nondin village, about 30 minutes after Islamist fighters passed nearby.

The soldiers went door-to-door, ejecting residents from their homes.

“They then rounded up villagers in groups before opening fire on them,” the report added, citing witness and survivor accounts.

They arrived in Soro, about 5km (3 miles) away, an hour later, also gathering and shooting at villagers, the survivors added.

In both villages, the soldiers also shot at those who attempted to hide or escape, witnesses said.

The mass killings are believed to be retaliation by the military, which accused the villagers of aiding armed Islamist fighters.

They followed an attack by Islamist fighters on a nearby military camp in the northern Yatenga province.

A survivor was quoted as saying that before the shootings, the soldiers accused the residents of failing to cooperate with them by not informing them of the movements of the Islamist fighters.

“The massacres in Nondin and Soro villages are just the latest mass killings of civilians by the Burkina Faso military in their counterinsurgency operations,” said Tirana Hassan, executive director of Human Rights Watch.

The Sahel country is ruled by a military junta, which seized power in a coup in 2022, promising to end the insurgency.

The violence has however continued to escalate, with more than a third of Burkina Faso controlled by jihadist groups.

International and human rights groups including the European Union and United Nations have accused Burkina Faso of serious human rights violations in its fight against insurgency, including the indiscriminate killings and forced disappearances of dozens of civilians.