The Burkinabè government strongly condemned and warned Thursday, August 18 against calls “to murder” and “to ethnic cleansing” relayed recently on social networks, targeting the Fulani minority of the country.
These calls, in the form of audio recordings posted mainly on the WhatsApp network, invited people “indigenousto attack the Fulani people of their region through murder and abuse, particularly in the south-west of the country bordering Côte d’Ivoire.
“Hate Speech”
“These are remarks of extreme gravity which are only equaled by the excesses of the radio Mille Collines which led to the Rwandan genocide (in 1994), one of the worst tragedies of humanity and from which we must know how to draw lessonswrites Lionel Bilgo, spokesperson for the Burkinabè government, in a declaration adopted by the Council of Ministers. “There are direct and active calls for murder, mass killings, ethnic cleansing and sedition: the tone and the words used send shivers down the spine and testify to the gravity of the situation“, he adds.
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According to Lionel Bilgo, “it is indeed hate speech, subversive, dangerous and unacceptable in a rich and diverse country like Burkina Faso», which impose «to act resolutely and firmly before the irreparable happens“. They call foran unqualified and unambiguous condemnation“. Fulanis who have joined jihadist groups that have been bloodying Burkina Faso for seven years, the amalgam “Fulani Equals Terroristis regularly established, which fuels tensions between communities.
Risk of “civil war”
In a column published on Tuesday, Alpha Barry, former Minister of Foreign Affairs of President Roch Marc Christian Kaboré, overthrown in January by a military putsch, alerted him to “the risk of a real civil war“, after the broadcast of these recordings. To avoid this, he called on politicians, religious, intellectuals, customary chiefs and other leaders to “go to the field, meet the populations, carry out strong actions to advocate cohesion and living together which are the cement of our nation“.
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On January 1, 2019, unidentified armed individuals attacked the village of Yirgou in northern Burkina, killing six people, including the village chief. This attack was immediately followed by retaliatory actions targeting the Fulani who had left 50 dead, according to the official report, at least 146, according to civil society organizations.
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