The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on Saturday called on the transitional authorities in Burkina Faso to carry out a “rapid, complete, impartial and transparent” investigation after the massacre of 28 people. Volker Türk is pleased that Ouagadougou has announced the opening of an investigation but also wants the authorities to “hold all those responsible to account, regardless of their position or rank”.
Army auxiliaries were accused of killing 28 people in Nouna, capital of Kossi province (north-west), on the night of December 30 to 31, New Year’s Eve. which raises fears of a cycle of reprisals between communities in this country bruised by jihadist violence since 2015.
A massacre in retaliation for an attack
“I sent a letter to the Minister of Foreign Affairs underlining this exact message” because “the victims and their loved ones deserve no less”, added the UN official in a press release. The UN human rights office said its local sources attributed the deaths to the Volunteers for the Defense of the Homeland (VDP), a militia made up of army auxiliaries to fight the jihadists.
According to the statement, the VDPs arrived in the town of Nouna, killing 28 people “in apparent retaliation for the attack on a military base the previous night” by suspected jihadists from the Support Group for Islam and Muslims ( GSIM, JNIM in Arabic), affiliated with Al-Qaeda.
Investigation for abuses
After the massacre, the Collective against Impunity and the stigmatization of communities (CISC), a human rights organization in Burkina, also denounced “exactions” committed by VDPs. The government then indicated that an investigation had been opened “to elucidate the circumstances of the tragedy and place all the responsibilities” and called “the whole population to calm” while waiting for “all the light” to be shed “on such unacceptable violence”.
According to the CISC, “armed civilians claiming to be” VDP “freely engage in organized looting and targeted abuses against civilian populations on a background of racial profiling and stigmatization”. Burkina Faso has been confronted since 2015 with increasing attacks by 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.
The power resulting from the last putsch of September 30 led by Captain Ibrahim Traoré launched a campaign at the end of 2022 to recruit new auxiliaries to help the army in its fight against the jihadists. Of the needs estimated at 50,000, 90,000 people have registered.