Burkina Junta Killed 1,255 Civilians—Triple the Jihadist Toll, HRW Finds

Human Rights Watch counted 1,837 civilians deliberately slain in 57 attacks between January 2023 and August 2025. Government troops and their militia allies account for 1,255 of those deaths, jihadist groups for 582. The 316-page report, released Thursday, names President Ibrahim Traoré and six senior commanders as potentially liable for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The bloodiest single incident came in December 2023 when soldiers and allied Volunteers for the Defence of the Fatherland (VDP) encircled the northern market town of Djibo. Survivors told researchers that militiamen shouted “Make sure no-one is breathing before heading out” as they moved house to house. More than 400 residents, including infants, were shot or burned alive inside their homes.

Researchers documented a systematic focus on Fulani herders, who make up 8.5 % of Burkina’s population. In village after village, troops accused Fulani men of feeding jihadists, then executed them and torched their homes. “It appears to be the de-facto policy of the Burkina Faso government to target the group,” the report states. Ilaria Allegrozzi, HRW’s senior Sahel researcher, said security forces “appear to be more brutal and violent” than the al-Qaeda-linked JNIM they claim to fight.

A 35-year-old mother from Djibo said bullets pierced her nine-month-old son as she held him; her two daughters died beside her. Interviewers recorded similar accounts from 450 witnesses who used the word “butchery” to describe both state and jihadist raids. Many said they still wake to the smell of burning flesh and the sound of soldiers laughing.

JNIM fighters killed at least 133 civilians and wounded 200 in under two hours during an August 2024 assault on a convoy escorted by government forces. The group controls more than 60 % of rural territory and levies taxes on villages that refuse army protection, creating the “rock and hard place” civilians describe.

Authorities bar foreign journalists, shut down mobile internet for months at a time, and arrest citizens who post videos of army convoys. Speaking to HRW can trigger forced enlistment in the VDP, a civilian militia that already numbers in the tens of thousands. President Traoré defended the practice last year, declaring that “individual freedoms are not superior to national freedom.”

Human Rights Watch has asked the International Criminal Court to open a preliminary probe and urged foreign donors to freeze security assistance to Traoré’s government. Burkina Faso expelled French troops in 2023 and now relies on Russian military advisors, yet the killings continue. More than 2.1 million people have fled their homes and nearly 6.5 million need food or medical aid to survive.