Burkina Faso’s human rights situation deteriorated considerably in 2024, as deadly attacks by Islamist armed groups against civilians surged and military forces and pro-government militias committed abuses during counterinsurgency operations.
The United Nations Human Rights Chief expressed concerns over the rise in killings of civilians by armed groups and state actors.
An estimated 6,000 civilians died in conflict-related violence between January and August 2024 alone. By August, the conflict, that began in 2016, had forced over 2.3 million from their homes. 2.1 million people were displaced internally and over 200,000 to neighboring countries.
Burkina Faso’s military junta, which took power during a 2022 coup, cracked down on media, the political opposition, and dissent, contributing to the shrinking of civic space.
In May 2023, Prime Minister Apollinaire Kyelem de Tambela announced the delay of elections scheduled for July 2024. On May 25, 2024, following nation-wide talks largely boycotted by the opposition, the junta announced that it would remain in power for another five years.
Military authorities clamped down on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people’s rights. In July, the junta approved a revised family code criminalizing homosexuality. The revised code did not specify penalties.
On November 9, a government source told the media that Burkina Faso’s junta planned to reinstate the death penalty, which was abolished in the 2018 penal code. The last known executions in Burkina Faso were in 1988.
On January 28, the junta announced it would leave the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), along with Mali and Niger, limiting opportunities for its citizens to seek justice through the ECOWAS Community Court of Justice.
On July 7, the military leaders of Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger signed a treaty establishing the Confederation of the Sahel States, taking a mutual defense pact signed in September 2023 a step further.
Abuses by Islamist Armed Groups
Islamist armed groups killed 1,004 civilians in 259 attacks between January and August 2024, compared to 1,185 civilians in 413 attacks in the same period in 2023, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (ACLED). Several attacks targeted communities that had joined the Volunteers for the Defense of the Homeland (Volontaires pour la défense de la patrie, VDPs), civilian auxiliaries of the Burkinabè armed forces. Islamist armed groups continued to besiege dozens of localities, cutting people off from food and aid.
On August 24, JNIM fighters attacked hundreds of civilians working on the construction of a defensive trench outside the town of Barsalogho, Center-North region, or who were nearby, killing at least 133 people, including dozens of women and children, and injuring at least 200 more.
On June 11, alleged JNIM fighters attacked Sindo town, Hauts-Bassins region, killing at least 20 civilian men. The attack was in apparent retaliation against the local community whom the JNIM accused of joining the VDPs.
On June 16, the JNIM claimed responsibility for a June 11 attack on an army base in Mansila, Sahel region, in which at least 20 civilians were killed and their homes burned.
On May 22, alleged JNIM fighters attacked a VDP base and a displaced persons’ camp in Goubré, North region, killing at least 72 civilians. The attack was in apparent retaliation against villagers who refused to join JNIM ranks.
On March 29, 15 women were reported missing after they ventured outside the city of Djibo, Sahel region, to fetch firewood. Relatives of the missing women believed they were either killed or kidnapped by the JNIM.
Islamist armed groups also killed Christian worshippers who did not abandon their religion despite Islamist warnings.
On February 25, the ISGS killed at least 12 civilians in an attack on a Catholic church in Essakane village, Sahel region. On August 25, Islamist fighters killed at least 26 civilians in Sanaba village, in western Burkina Faso.
Abuses by State Security Forces and Pro-Government Militias
Burkinabè military and VDPs killed at least 1,000 civilians between January and July 2024, according to ACLED, and forcibly disappeared dozens of others during counterinsurgency operations in 2024.
On February 25, the military summarily executed at least 223 civilians, including 56 children, in the villages of Nondin and Soro, North region, in apparent retaliation for an attack by Islamist fighters against a Burkinabè military camp outside Ouahigouya city. These mass killings appear to be part of a widespread military campaign against civilians accused of collaborating with Islamist armed groups and may amount to crimes against humanity.
Media reported that between April 27 and May 4, soldiers killed up to 400 civilians during counterinsurgency operations in 15 villages located along their itineraries.
A video circulated on social media in July and verified by Human Rights Watch shows 18 men, wearing Burkinabè army uniforms, standing by while two use knives to disembowel a dismembered human body.
Crackdown on the Media and Dissent
The military junta has used a sweeping emergency law against journalists, critics, and judges.
Between August 9 and 12, the security forces notified seven judges and prosecutors that they had been conscripted to participate in military operations against Islamist armed groups, between August 14 and November 13. On August 14, six reported to a military base in Ouagadougou, the capital, and have not been heard from since. All seven judicial officers had opened legal proceedings against junta supporters.
In February, armed men in civilian clothes abducted Rasmané Zinaba and Bassirou Badjo, members of the civil society group Balai Citoyen, in Ouagadougou.
In June and July, Zinaba and Badjo appeared in two videos posted on Burkina Faso’s state TV YouTube channel, wearing military uniforms, and participating in military exercises, presumably in a conflict zone. In early November 2023, the Burkinabè security forces had notified a dozen journalists, activists, and political opponents , including Zinaba and Badjo, that they would be conscripted to participate in security operations. On December 6, 2023, a court in Ouagadougou ruled that the conscription orders concerning Zinaba and Badjo were illegal.
The military junta has also abducted civil society activists and political opponents.
In January, unidentified men, presenting themselves as members of the national intelligence services, abducted Guy Hervé Kam, a lawyer and coordinator of the political group Serve and Not be Served (Servir Et Non se Servir, SENS), inside Ouagadougou’s international airport. Kam was released on May 29 after the Ouagadougou Court of Appeal ruled against his arrest, only to be re-arrested the following day on charges of “conspiracy,” and remanded in a military prison. On July 9, a military court ordered Kam’s release on bail. On July 31, a military prosecutor summoned Kam, ordered again his arrest for “attempt at destabilizing” the country, and remanded him in prison.
In June, Serge Oulon, director of the publication L’Événement, Kalifara Séré, commentator on the private television channel BF1, and Adama Bayala, also commentator on the same TV channel, all critics of the junta, were abducted by unidentified men and remain missing. In October, a member of the justice ministry stated that the three men had been conscripted.
Accountability for Abuses
Successive Burkinabè governments have made scant progress in investigating those responsible for conflict-related atrocities since 2016.
On July 26, Human Rights Watch wrote to the Burkinabè justice minister, sharing the organization’s research findings on the alleged abuses committed by armed Islamist groups, and requesting responses to specific questions. In its response, the justice minister said that “all allegations of human rights … abuses committed by terrorists are subject to investigations aimed at … sanctioning perpetrators” and that “several judicial investigations have been initiated by military prosecutors or civilian courts.”
In 2024, there was little progress in the investigations of several 2023 killings. On April 20, 2023, soldiers killed 83 men, 28 women, and 45 children and burned homes in and near the village of Karma, Yatenga province. Authorities announced an investigation but have not followed up. On November 12, 2023, the European Union called for an investigation into a massacre in the Centre-Nord region in which about 100 people were reportedly killed. The government said that on November 5, 2023, gunmen killed at least 70 people in Zaongo village and that the incident was being investigated.