According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), at least 223 civilians, including 56 children, were executed on February 25 in two villages in northern Burkina Faso by their own army. The revelation of this massacre – one of the worst since the start of the jihadist insurgency in the country in 2015 – two months after the fact, was made possible by the testimonies of 14 survivors of the killings, international organizations, and civil society, as well as by photo and video analysis.

In Nodin and Soro, two villages located about 20 kilometers from the Malian border and besieged – like many others – by the jihadists of the Nusrat al-Islam Support Group (Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin, or JNIM, affiliated to Al-Qaida), soldiers ordered people out of their homes before herding them into three groups – men, women, and children – and shooting them at point-blank range, finishing off those who were still alive, according to survivors' accounts gathered by the human rights organization. Fleeing individuals were also targeted.

When the hundred or so Burkinabe soldiers arrived in Soro in armored vehicles and on motorcycles, after having already killed in the neighboring village of Nodin, "they asked us just one question: 'Why didn't you warn us of the arrival of the jihadists? And then they added, answering themselves: 'You're terrorists!' Then they started shooting at us," said a 32-year-old woman, who was wounded in the leg and said she saw "dead people falling on [her]."

Earlier in the morning, 30 kilometers to the southeast, on the outskirts of the town of Ouahigouya, a Nusrat al-Islam attack on a security post had resulted in the death of at least 13 Volunteers for the Defense of the Homeland (VDP), civilian auxiliaries massively recruited to support the army against the jihadists after Captain Ibrahim Traoré came to power in 2022.

The deployment of these militiamen has only fanned the flames of violence, with the terrorists increasing the frequency and scale of their attacks on soldiers and VDP. The VDP responded by retaliating against populations perceived as the enemy's accomplices. According to the NGO ACLED, since Traoré came to power, the army has killed at least 1,300 civilians in anti-terrorist operations.

According to a survivor of the Soro massacre, the only survivor of a family of 17, all exterminated that day, "the soldiers wanted to make sure there were no survivors because before they left, they shot several times at people who were already on the ground." "Those who survived, like me, were pulled out of a pile of corpses," said the 25-year-old, quoted in the HRW report. Locals dug 11 mass graves, some reserved for women, others for children, to bury the 44 victims in Nodin and the 179 others in Soro.

You have 53.93% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.