Global Courant 2023-05-04 01:03:22
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Burkina Faso authorities must take immediate steps to end attacks against civilians in the context of the armed conflict and conduct an impartial and independent investigation into the crimes that took place in Karma on April 20, which may amount to war crimes.
The Karma massacre is yet another example of violence against civilians in the conflict in Burkina Faso. Following the killings in Nouna on December 30 and the attack on the site of displaced persons at La Ferme in Ouahigouya on February 13, the military has once again been held responsible for these attacks and killings, which deliberately targeted civilians. Such attacks on civilians must be stopped immediately.
Samira Daoud, director of Amnesty International’s West and Central Africa office
On April 20, in Karma, a village 15 km from Ouahigouya in the north of the country, elements of the Burkinabé army entered the village at 7:30 am in what villagers thought was a routine patrol. The soldiers rounded up the inhabitants, collected their identity documents and then shot the villagers at close range, killing at least 147 people. The attack lasted from 7:30 am to 2 pm.
Amnesty International was able to gather testimonies from survivors and local sources in Ouahigouya. These indicate the responsibility of the 3rd Battalion of the Rapid Intervention Brigade (BIR) in the killings.
At a press conference of Karma residents on April 29, the death toll from the massacre was estimated at 147 people, including 45 children. Victims are believed to be from the Ipaala, Moygayiri, Saayiri, Seygayiri, Rikin, Kassomrikin, Maringo and Rokoudin neighborhoods in the village.
Under international humanitarian law, all parties to an armed conflict must systematically distinguish between civilians and combatants and are prohibited from carrying out attacks on the civilian population and extrajudicial killings. Serious violations of the Geneva Conventions are war crimes.
According to survivors interviewed by Amnesty International, the army accused residents of Karma of failing to denounce elements of armed groups that allegedly swept through the village to attack the army and the positions of the Volunteers for the Defense of the Fatherland (VDP) in the nearby village of Karma. Aourema.
Hassane*, a relative of some Karma victims, testifies:
“We didn’t know what was going on. When the army arrived at 7:30 am on the morning of Thursday, April 20, the residents naturally came out to welcome and gather around them. These people were dressed in black uniforms, others in greenish fatigues, some had helmets, others had hoods on, and they were in various pickup trucks and on motorcycles. Some spoke in Dioula, others in Moore. They first asked the villagers for their national ID cards and then they started shooting at them.”
“We’re going to treat you like the terrorists do.”
A survivor of the attack, who was injured and treated in Ouahigouya, gave the following detailed account:
“When they (the army) arrived, they asked to check our IDs. Then they told us to take the women and children out so they could check theirs too. They gathered to talk to us. They asked us why we were still in the village, while surrounding villages like Youba and Aourema were deserted. We said it was the terrorists who ordered the residents of Youba and Aourema to leave. They had not given us such an ultimatum and we did not want to leave our country. And they (the army) said, ‘Since you fear the terrorists more than we do, we are going to treat you as the terrorists do.’ (…) They told the men to remove everything they had on them (mobiles, IDs and money), and then they surrounded us and directed certain people to go to a certain place. As we made our way to that spot, I slipped into a nearby courtyard, climbed over the wall, and ran.
Noufou*, a survivor from the Rikin Ward, describes what happened to him:
“They came to my house to check IDs. They asked me why I had not come to show my ID at the place where the other villagers were gathered. They shot my brother, a deaf and mute, in the doorway. They took our pictures. I also saw the body of the imam of our local mosque in his garden. When they came to check my ID, they asked me why we were still there when the people of Aourema village left.”
After this check, Noufou was taken away along with several other villagers to be shot by the army: “When they thought they had killed everyone, they left. But two of them came back to finish off those who had not died. I managed to survive by covering myself with the blood of the bodies next to me. It was the Burkina Faso army that committed this massacre. There was a weapon with a human skull on the shoulder of some soldiers. They are the ones who entered the village on the big motorcycles.”
The Karma massacre occurred five days after an attack on a VDP base in the village of Aourema, blamed on the jihadist group Ansaroul Islam. The pattern of what appears to be a punitive expedition is similar to that of the Nouna killings of December 2022, and of the February 13 army assault on the La Ferme displaced persons area in Ouahigouya, which killed seven minors in the Zondoma military camp, according to a research of Liberation And AP NewS.
Amnesty International was able to collect photos of the dead, taken on April 25 after the army left the village, as well as photos of the wounded being treated in Ouahigouya, which showed the victims’ gunshot wounds.
The army also reportedly burned down several buildings in the village after the massacre. As of April 24, soldiers were still deployed in the area between Karma and Ouahigouya. These soldiers blocked access to the village for people from Karma living in Ouahigouya, preventing them from burying the victims.
Rapid Intervention Battalion (BIR) involved
Several witnesses told Amnesty International that the military unit that attacked Karma was part of the Third Rapid Intervention Battalion (BIR), which had left Ouagadougou for Karma. People in the town of Ouahigouya said they witnessed this battalion moving to the Karma area.
Some of these soldiers wore T-shirts with their unit name “3rd BIR” prominently displayed.
These soldiers were seen around 5 a.m. by several locals around the Place de la Nation here in Ouahigouya. People went to pray on this Ramadan morning. They left the square at dawn on the same day and headed north to the villages of Karma and Aourema.
Kader*, a citizen of Ouahigouya and member of civil society.
“This detachment of soldiers returned to Ouahigouya on Sunday, April 23. Everyone saw them in town when they left for Ouagadougou this afternoon (April 24),” says Hassane*, a resident of Ouahigouya, who is from Karma.
According to a security observer: “They (the BIR elements) left Ouagadougou with clear and strong instructions. (…) But a massacre has been committed here with impunity.”
On April 22, the Ouahigouya High Court Prosecutor’s Office announced the opening of an investigation to establish the facts and responsibilities behind the Karma attack.
“This investigation must be conducted impartially and independently so that those responsible for war crimes and other serious violations can be brought before ordinary courts in accordance with due process standards,” said Samira Daoud.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Amnesty International.
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