Burkina Faso’s troops killed at least 1,255 civilians, including 193 children, between January 2023 and April 2025, a report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) has found.
The HRW report said the military and Volunteers for the Defense of the Homeland (VDP) carried out grave abuses against civilians during several dozen operations.
The abuses highlighted include unlawful killings and summary executions; torture and other ill-treatment; pillage and burning of homes; and looting of livestock.
“These abuses have also resulted in hundreds of thousands of people being displaced to other parts of the country and to neighbouring countries,” the report said.
In some incidents, Burkinabè troops and VDPs reportedly targeted civilians on suspicion of collaborating with JNIM, or as retaliation following JNIM attacks.
In other cases, troops in convoys were said to have targeted civilians, apparently because they lived in JNIM-controlled zones.
The JNIM (Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin), an Al-Qaeda affiliate, is the most active armed group in the Sahel region.
During the same period, HRW found that the JNIM killed at least 582 civilians, including 15 children.
The civilian killing by the Burkinabè military and VDPs was 73 percent higher than the JNIM attacks.
