Burkina Faso has witnessed a surge in jihadist violence over the past four months since a coup d’état overthrew its government in late January, Voice of America (VOA) reported on Wednesday.
“[C]ivilians in Burkina Faso are suffering from an increase in attacks by armed Islamist groups,” VOA reported on May 18.
“Nearly 600 people were killed between January and April of this year – triple the number in the same period in 2021,” the U.S. government-funded broadcaster noted, citing data from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project. “The number of people displaced has also risen, reaching more than 1.8 million by the end of February of this year – a more than 4 percent increase since the end of January.”
VOA based its May 18 report on a May 16 analysis by Human Rights Watch (HRW). The organization conducted interviews and research from April 7 to April 21 in the Burkina Faso cities of Ouagadougou (the national capital) and Kaya to produce its analysis, which indicated that Islamist violence had surged in the West African nation over the past few months.
Summarizing the evidence gathered in April, HRW detailed the following incidents of violence perpetrated by jihadist militants across Burkina Faso since January:
Villagers said that heavily armed Islamist fighters killed civilians during attacks and planted deadly improvised explosive devices (IEDs). Fighters in dozens of cases raped and otherwise abused women and girls who were foraging for wood, traveling to and from the market, and fleeing the violence.
The fighters also burned villages; commandeered ambulances and looted health centers; destroyed crucial water, telecommunications, and electricity infrastructure; and engaged in widespread pillage. Many villagers described seeing numerous child soldiers, some as young as 12, within the armed Islamist ranks.
Though Burkina Faso has suffered from a regional Islamist insurgency since 2015, the violent campaign has strengthened since a coup deposed the nation’s government on January 23. Burkina Faso military forces led the coup, blaming then-president Roch Marc Christian Kaboré for failing to curb Islamist-tied violence at the time.
“[I]n the more than three months since the coup, the junta itself has failed to reverse the trend and restore peace and stability,” VOA observed on May 18.
“In early April, transitional President Lieutenant-Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba said he was implementing a new strategy that would show results within five months. The changes include replacing heads of command, improving equipment and calling in retired military personnel,” according to the news broadcaster.
Northern regions of Burkina Faso form part of the West African Sahel region. The area, which also includes sections of Mali and Niger, has been targeted by Islamist terror attacks for roughly a decade. West African militants linked to international terror organizations, namely Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), target both civilians and state soldiers as part of the Islamist insurgency.