APA-Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso) Human rights organisations regularly accuse Burkina Faso’s fighting forces of abuses against civilians.
“Three military drone strikes in Burkina Faso, which the government claims were aimed at Islamist fighters, killed at least 60 civilians and wounded dozens more when they hit two crowded markets and a well-attended funeral,” Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report published on Thursday.
According to the NGO, which said it had interviewed dozens of witnesses and analysed video footage, the incidents took place between August and November 2023, and targeted markets in the village of Bouro (28 men killed) and the town of Boulkessi, in Mali (seven victims) and a funeral in the village of Bidi (24 dead).
The drone strikes were carried out by Bayraktar TB2 drones, manufactured in Turkey and acquired by Burkina in 2022.
“The Burkinabe army used one of the most precise weapons in its arsenal to strike large groups of people, causing the death of many civilians,” states Ilaria Allegrozzi, Sahel researcher at HRW, in the report.
The human rights organisation called on the transitional government to “urgently and impartially investigate these apparent war crimes, hold those responsible to account, and provide adequate support to the victims and their families.”
The Burkinabe army has recently been at the centre of accusations of abuses against civilians.
Human rights organisations, including the ‘Comite de Lutte contre la Stigmatisation des Communautes’ (Committee to Combat Community Stigmatization, CISC), regularly report cases of abductions and summary executions.
The government has always denied allegations of human rights violations by the Defence and Security Forces (FDS), arguing that this is a strategy of “manipulation and disinformation (by armed terrorist groups, especially when they are in trouble.”
DS/te/fss/as/APA