New York: Human Rights Watch (HRW) has released a damning report accusing Burkina Faso’s military and pro-government militias of orchestrating a massacre in March that left at least 130 Fulani civilians dead near the town of Solenzo.
The report, published Monday, draws on eyewitness accounts and analysis of videos posted online. It alleges that the killings were not random, but part of a targeted campaign against the Fulani ethnic group — a community often caught between government forces and insurgents in the region.
The killings, carried out by the military and members of the government-aligned Volunteers for the Defense of the Homeland (VDPs), forced thousands of Fulani families to flee Banwa province, many attempting to reach neighboring Mali. Survivors recounted harrowing details of their escape, saying that VDP fighters fired on them indiscriminately, while drones and helicopters hovered overhead. Some said entire families were wiped out.
One Fulani herder who lost eight relatives described how fleeing civilians were treated like prey. “The VDPs shot at us like animals,” he said.
According to HRW, the massacre was followed by revenge attacks from the al-Qaeda-linked Group for the Support of Muslims (JNIM), which struck villages in Sourou province, killing around 100 civilians accused of collaborating with the army.
HRW senior researcher Ilaria Allegrozzi stated that the Solenzo massacre represents just one part of a broader pattern of atrocities in the Sahel. “The videos circulating on social media showed only a glimpse of the horror. Our investigations reveal the full scale of the killings — and the military’s direct involvement.”
Witnesses described how government forces, including military helicopters, worked hand-in-hand with the VDP militias. One woman recounted hearing fighters shouting in the Djoula language: “Find all the Fulani! Kill them all!”
In contrast to the accounts gathered by HRW, the Burkinabe government claimed in a March 15 statement that its forces had responded to a terrorist attack on March 10, killing around 100 militants and rescuing civilians allegedly used as human shields. But witnesses and HRW investigators said no combat with Islamist groups occurred in the Solenzo area at that time, suggesting the operation had been premeditated.
The Fulani community in Banwa province has now been almost entirely displaced, HRW reported, with many either killed, kidnapped, or fleeing into Mali. “There are no Fulani left in the province,” one resident said.
The Solenzo attack was reportedly followed by a military incursion into Sourou, an area held by JNIM for several years. After the army’s brief presence, the Islamist group launched retaliatory strikes, executing dozens of men suspected of cooperating with state forces.
“I counted 70 bodies in front of the health center,” a 60-year-old woman told HRW.
Allegrozzi called for urgent international attention, urging the UN Security Council and the African Union to act swiftly to protect civilians. She warned that atrocities by both state and non-state actors in Burkina Faso and the wider Sahel remain severely underreported.
The crisis comes amid an ongoing wave of violence across the Sahel, a region now accounting for over half of global deaths linked to terrorism, according to the 2024 Global Terrorism Index.
Burkina Faso’s military junta, which seized power in 2022 citing security failures, now faces growing international scrutiny over its conduct and alleged human rights abuses in the fight against insurgency.
