Genocide Alert: Burkina Faso
- Genocide Watch
- Apr 1, 2025
- 3 min read
April 2025
By Olivia Cash
A vicious war continues to rage through Burkina Faso as military leader Captain Ibrahim Traoré attempts to supress an onslaught of Islamist insurgencies. Since 2016, the citizens of Burkina Faso have been terrorized by three Jihadist groups: the Group for Support of Muslims (JNIM), the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS), and the Al Qaeda-affiliated Ansarul Islam. Hundreds more have been killed during retaliatory attacks by the Burkina Faso Armed Forces.
In the last few years, the rate of civilian deaths has increased. The Armed Conflict Location and Event Data (ACLED) initiative has recorded almost 10,000 targeted civilian fatalities in Burkina Faso since 2016, but more than 60% of those have occurred just since 2022. In 2024, Jihadist groups murdered over 1,000 civilians in village massacres and door-to-door killings. Between May and August 2024, the JNIM alone claimed responsibility for four major attacks that cost at least 254 civilian lives.
Targets of the insurgents include both Christian and Muslim worshippers. In February 2024, twenty-five people were left dead following simultaneous raids on a church and a mosque. Reports by Christian aid charities indicate that Islamist terrorists massacred a further 150 residents of the predominantly Catholic town of Manni on Oct. 6, 2024.
Kidnapping is frequently used as a form of terror. The rate of abductions in Burkina Faso increased 30 times between 2017 and 2023. Human Rights Watch reported that 15 women disappeared from Djibo on Mar. 29, 2024, likely killed or kidnapped by the JNIM.
In February 2023, the Burkina Faso Armed Forces killed at least 223 civilians in an attack on the villages of Nondin and Sorro. The military disproportionately targets ethnic Fulanis: they constitute 10% of Burkina Faso’s population, yet represent over 50% of the military’s extrajudicial killings, as of 2022. In its effort to fight jihadist groups, the army has integrated the 28,000 Volunteers for the Defence of the Homeland (VDPs) into its military strategy. These untrained and unregulated local militias are now the fourth most well-armed force in Burkina Faso. They are accused of committing murder, sexual assault, kidnap, theft, and vandalism against civilians, largely ethnic Fulanis.
The military strategy against jihadist factions has not succeeded. At least 46 cities and towns across Burkina Faso are blockaded by armed jihadists, including the city of Djibo, where 350,000 civilians have been trapped for over two years. Extreme hunger pervades these locations: cut off from farmlands, the average family now relies on wild leaves for up to 85% of their dietary consumption. However, in 2023, aid workers reached only 1% of the half a million civilians requiring humanitarian assistance in the enclaved towns; 11 blockaded towns received no aid at all. Access by international aid organizations is obstructed by road mines and armed groups. Due to jihadist attacks, the United Nations Humanitarian Air Service had to suspend its operations in 2023.
Armed insurgents target healthcare facilities and water sources. Attacks have closed 426 hospitals, leaving over 4 million Burkinabés without access to basic medical care. In 2024, Médecins sans Frontières withdrew its services from Burkina Faso due to repeated assaults on its facilities. In 2022, attacks on water points left up to one million Burkinabés without safe drinking water.
In June 2024, the Norwegian Refugee Council named Burkina Faso the world’s "most neglected displacement crisis", as up to 2 million people (10% of the population) are currently held in internal displacement camps. By 2022, 80% of Burkina Faso’s internally displaced persons (IDPs) were women and children, many of whom are trapped in blockaded sites.
Children in Burkina Faso are suffering disproportionately. 630,000 Burkinabé children were reported chronically malnourished in 2022-2023, an increase of 50% from the previous year. More than one million children are currently without education, after a quarter of all schools closed in 2023 due to the conflict. Since 2021, reports of child soldier recruitment have circulated, a problem likely to be aggravated by Burkina Faso’s recent withdrawal from ECOWAS and its Child Policy.
Genocide Watch deems the war in Burkina Faso to have escalated to Stage 8: Persecution.
Genocide Watch recommends that:
The U.N. must demand an immediate ceasefire.
The U.N. and the African Union (AU) must deploy a peacekeeping mission to Burkina Faso.
Captain Ibrahim Troaré must disarm the VDPs and hold them to account for their crimes.
Leaders of the JNIM, ISGS, Ansarul Islam, and the Burkina Faso Armed Forces should be tried by the ICC for committing war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Police should be deployed with the U.N./AU mission and be authorised to arrest those charged by the ICC.
