The government of Burkina Faso is being accused of perpetrating the massacres of over 220 civilians, including 56 children.
According to Human Rights Watch, who first broke the story, the massacrestook place in late February and spanned the two neighboring villages of Soro and Nondin.
The likely motive for these murders lies in what the Burkinabè government sees as these villager’s cooperation with Jihadist groups who they’ve fought for nearly a decade.
These villagers allegedly didn’t report nearby Jihadist troop movements to the government. This attack comes on the heels of a similar assault in early November that resulted in 70 deaths.
In the wake of these massacres, Burkina Faso has announced the temporary suspension of the BBC and Voice of America broadcasts in the country.
The BBC and Voice of America began reporting on the massacre soon after the release of initial reports, but the Burkinabè government denies the claims and intends to suspend the networks for two weeks for reporting on them and have told other networks to avoid doing the same.
While they do acknowledge the deaths of these villagers, the government says that Human Rights Watch’s claims are “baseless” and believe that, “the media campaign orchestrated around these accusations fully shows the unavowed intention … to discredit our fighting forces.”
Additionally, the government has announced the opening of a legal inquiry into the killings.
For almost a decade, Burkina Faso has fought against an insurgency campaign from Jihadist groups linked to Al-Qaeda and ISIS. These groups now control around half of the country’s territory.
As a result of the government’s inability to handle Islamic insurgents in the country, a coup in 2022 brought Ibrahim Traoré to power.
His administration has attempted to crack down on these groups and has begun to shift alliances from France, Burkina Faso’s former ruler, to Russia.