Burkina Faso says HRW bloodbath allegations are ‘unfounded’ | Human rights information

Adeyemi Adeyemi

World Courant

A Human Rights Watch report on Thursday accused the army of executing residents of Nodin and Soro, together with no less than 56 kids.

Burkina Faso has mentioned a Human Rights Watch report claiming troopers killed no less than 223 villagers in two assaults on February 25 accommodates “unfounded allegations”.

The HRW report accused the army on Thursday of executing residents of Nodin and Soro, together with no less than 56 kids, as a part of a marketing campaign in opposition to civilians accused of collaborating with insurgent fighters. The New York-based group mentioned its report was based mostly on phone interviews with witnesses, civil society and others.

“The federal government of Burkina Faso strongly rejects and condemns such baseless accusations,” Communications Minister Rimtalba Jean Emmanuel Ouedraogo mentioned in a press release late on Saturday.

“The murders of Nodin and Soro have led to the opening of a authorized investigation,” he mentioned.

The minister expressed his shock that “whereas this investigation is ongoing to ascertain the information and establish the authors, HRW, with boundless creativeness, has been in a position to establish ‘the responsible’ and cross judgment.”

HRW described the bloodbath as “one of many worst army abuses in Burkina Faso since 2015.”

“These mass killings look like a part of a widespread army marketing campaign in opposition to civilians accused of collaborating with Islamist armed teams and should quantity to crimes in opposition to humanity,” HRW mentioned on Thursday.

“The Burkinabe authorities should urgently conduct an intensive investigation into the massacres, with help from the African Union and the United Nations to guard its independence and impartiality,” it added.

In response to the Burkina assertion: “The media marketing campaign orchestrated round these allegations totally demonstrates the unstated intention… to discredit our armed forces.”

“All allegations of human rights violations and abuses reported within the context of the battle in opposition to terrorism are systematically investigated,” the federal government and the UN Excessive Commissioner for Human Rights mentioned.

On Thursday, Burkina Faso suspended radio networks BBC and Voice of America from broadcasting after they aired the report accusing the army of assaults on civilians within the battle in opposition to rebels.

Violence within the area, fueled by the decade-long battle with armed teams linked to al-Qaeda and ISIL (ISIS), has worsened for the reason that respective militaries seized energy in Burkina Faso and neighboring Mali and Niger in a collection of coups from 2020 to 2023.

Burkina Faso skilled a critical escalation of lethal assaults in 2023, reportedly killing greater than 8,000 folks, in response to US-based disaster monitoring group the Armed Battle Location & Occasion Knowledge Mission (ACLED).

Burkina Faso says HRW bloodbath allegations are ‘unfounded’ | Human rights information

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