Burkina Faso's army massacred over 200 civilians in village raid: NGO

Military forces in Burkina Faso killed 223 civilians, including babies and children, in attacks on two villages accused of cooperating with militants, Human Rights Watch said in a report published Thursday.

The mass killings took place on 25 February in the country's northern villages of Nondin and Soro.

Fifty-six children were among the dead, according to the report, which called on the United Nations and the African Union to investigate and to support local efforts to bring those responsible to justice.

“The massacres in Nondin and Soro villages are just the latest mass killings of civilians by the Burkina Faso military in their counterinsurgency operations,” Human Rights Watch director Tirana Hassan said in a statement.

“International assistance is critical to support a credible investigation into possible crimes against humanity.”

The once-peaceful nation has been ravaged by violence that has pitted jihadis linked to al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group against state-backed forces.

Both sides have targeted civilians caught in the middle, displacing more than 2 million people, of which more than half are children.

Most attacks go unpunished and unreported in a nation run by a repressive leadership that silences perceived dissidents.

More than 20,000 people have been killed in Burkina Faso since jihadi violence first hit the West African nation nine years ago, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, a USt-based non-profit.

(with newswires)

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