Burkina Faso military junta killed more than 1,800 civilians, report says
April 2 (UPI) — More than 1,800 civilians have been killed since the military took power in Burkina Faso as it has gone after al-Qaeda-linked jihadist groups wreaking havoc in the region for years.
Roughly 1,837 civilians — including dozens of children — have been killed in 57 separate incidents since Ibrahim Traore and the military took over in a September 2022 coup, Human Rights Watch said in a report published Thursday.
The report covers events that occurred between January 2023 and August 2025 in 11 regions of the country that resulted in the deaths of 647 men, 171 women, 212 children, 162 adults whose gender is unknown and another 651 deaths the organization does not have data on.
“As part of widespread or systemic attacks on civilian populations, the murder and forcible displacement by all sides amount to crimes against humanity,” HRW wrote in the report.
“Government forces have also carried out the crimes against human of arbitrary imprisonment, torture, enforced disappearance and other inhuman acts,” it said.
Traore ousted former President Lt. Col. Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba in September 2022, who had taken power nine months earlier when he overthrew Burkina Faso’s democratically elected president, Roch Marc Christian Kabore.
Since taking power, Traore’s government has said that it is working to counter armed Islamist groups that have caused political instability in the country, but has suppressed “fundamental rights and freedoms” as it eliminates political opponents, journalists and other threats to its power, HRW wrote in the report.
HRW noted that although some figures are available through various databases, including one that suggests well over 10,000 civilians have been killed in Burkina Faso since 2016 but that “many incidents go unreported.”
“The grievous harm suffered by civilians in the conflict and the junta’s suppression of public dissent and criticism mean that Burkina Faso’s international partners … need to play a critical role to break the country’s long-standing cycles of abuses and impunity and promote accountability,” the organization said.
