The human rights organization Human Rights Watch (HWR) accused, on Monday, April 20, the security forces of Burkina Faso of having executed 31 residents of the town of Djibo, in the north of the country, "In a brutal travesty of counterterrorism that could constitute a war crime", April 9.
In a press release sent to Agence France-presse (AFP), the non-governmental organization (NGO), through the voice of Corinne Dufka, director of Human Rights Watch for West Africa, calls on the Burkinabe authorities to "Immediately open an impartial investigation into these murders and hold those responsible accountable for their actions, whatever their rank".
HRW and Burkinabé civil society organizations have already denounced the violence perpetrated by the security forces against the population, which, according to these NGOs, has caused several hundred deaths, under the guise of fighting against jihadist groups which are increasing the attacks in the country for five years.
Men arrested, embarked and found dead
According to the investigation carried out by HRW in Djibo, a city located 200 km north of the capital, Ouagadougou, the security forces exclusively targeted men from the Fulani community, a semi-nomadic Sahelian ethnic group from which Islamist groups particularly recruit , according to experts.
"According to residents, dozens of members of the security forces were involved in the April 9 operation, which started at around 10 am (local time, 12 pm in Paris) with the arrests, and ended at around 1:30 pm , when several shots were heard "explains HRW.
"The victims were arrested in several neighborhoods while they were watering their cattle, walking or sitting in front of their homes", by soldiers, presumably from the camp of the Groupement des forces antiterroristes de Djibo, a small town of around twenty thousand inhabitants in the heart of a region very frequently targeted by jihadist attacks. The men arrested "Were placed on a convoy made up of a dozen military vehicles, including vans, an armored car and motorcycles".
"The villagers said that they went, around 4 p.m., to the place where they heard the shots. They found the bodies of 31 men there who were last seen in the custody of the security forces. Several of them were blindfolded or with their hands tied. Residents said none were armed ", details HRW.
Burkina Faso law enforcement officials at a loss
"They had been shot dead, some torn apart by gusts to the point of being unrecognizable", according to a witness quoted by HRW who said he lost five members of his family. "It was a terrifying scene", "I could only recognize my brother from a fragment of his clothes", relates another witness.
For its investigation, HRW said it had "Conducted interviews with seventeen people aware of the April 9 killings, including twelve witnesses to the arrests and the burial of the bodies", who "Have drawn up a list of victims, all of them". The NGO told AFP it had sent a copy of its report to the Burkinabé government.
Under-equipped and poorly trained, the police in Burkina Faso fail to stem the spiral of jihadist violence, despite certain triumphal announcements, and despite the help of foreign forces, notably from France, present in the Sahel with 5,100 men as part of the anti-jihadist operation "Barkhane".
