Thoroughly Investigate Islamist Armed Group's War Crime at Barsalogho; Ensure Accountability
- An Islamist armed group massacred at least 133 people in the town of Barsalogho, Burkina Faso, on August 24, 2024, largely civilians forced to build a trench to protect the town with a military base.
- The massacre is the latest example of atrocities by Islamist armed groups against civilians whom the government has put at unnecessary risk.
- Burkina Faso should stop putting civilians at needless risk, including by using them as forced labor in war zones.
(Nairobi) - An Islamist armed group's massacre of at least 133 people shows the inadequacy of Burkina Faso's government efforts to protect civilians, Human Rights Watch said today. The authorities should promptly and thoroughly investigate the mass killings in the town of Barsalogho, Sanmatenga province, and bring those responsible to justice.
On August 24, 2024, the Al-Qaeda-linked Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wa al-Muslimeen, JNIM) attacked hundreds of civilians who were digging a military trench to protect Barsalogho, which has a military base. The attackers also fired upon many other civilians in the vicinity of the trench. Human Rights Watch confirmed through video analysis and witness accounts that least 133 people were killed, including dozens of children, and at least 200 more were injured.
"The massacre in Barsalogho is the latest example of atrocities by Islamist armed groups against civilians whom the government has put at unnecessary risk," said Carine Kaneza Nantulya, deputy Africa director at Human Rights Watch. "The authorities should urgently prioritize the protection of civilians, bring the perpetrators to account, and ensure that victims and their families receive adequate medical assistance and other support."
On August 25, JNIM claimed responsibility for the attack, an evident war crime, saying that its forces killed 300 members of the Burkinabè military and affiliated militias. In his October 10 response to a Human Rights Watch letter, the Burkina Faso justice minister acknowledged that soldiers and civilian auxiliaries called Volunteers for the Defense of the Homeland (Volontaires pour la défense de la patrie, or VDPs) were killed along with civilians in the attack but did not provide a death toll.
Between August 26 and September 20, Human Rights Watch interviewed 12 witnesses to the attack, some of whom had been injured. Human Rights Watch verified four videos seemingly filmed by JNIM fighters and posted on social media or sent to Human Rights Watch.
Witnesses said that at about 10 a.m. on August 24, scores of JNIM fighters riding motorbikes and armed with Kalashnikov-style assault rifles and machine guns attacked hundreds of civilians working on expanding the defensive trench northeast from the center of Barsalogho. Witnesses said that the fighters, who wore military uniforms or civilian clothes with headscarves, fired at people indiscriminately, moving up and down the trench and executing those who were still alive.
A 39-year-old man who lost five family members in the attack said: "They came on motorbikes, two on each motorbike. As soon as they approached the trench, they started shooting. They shot continuously, as if they had plenty of ammunition. People were falling like flies. I managed to climb up the trench, I don't know how I did it, because they were shooting at anyone.... They came to exterminate us. They did not spare anyone."
The trench has been under construction since 2022. Witnesses said that soldiers based in Barsalogho forced male residents to dig the new trench section without providing payment. They said that many men in Barsalogho had refused to work on the new section for various reasons, including that it kept them from earning their living, they believe the digging was not safe, or they had been alerted on the day of the attack that armed men were approaching Barsalogho. They said that the soldiers coerced them to do the work by threatening and beating them.
"On the day of the attack, some soldiers came to my door and ordered me to go dig the trench," said a 52-year-old farmer. "I didn't want to go because I thought it was risky, but they beat me with a rope and forced me to go."
International humanitarian law applicable to the armed conflict in Burkina Faso prohibits uncompensated or abusive forced labor. The justice minister, in his response to Human Rights Watch, said that forced labor was forbidden by law in Burkina Faso and that "testimonies according to which the military forced the populations to dig the trench are not proven."
Since the August 24 attack, heavy machinery has been used to construct additional trench sections encompassing Barsalogho town. "After the attack, the trench construction activities continued," said a 28-year-old resident. "[I]t was Captain Meda and his men who continued to dig the trench with the machinery. This is what they should have done all along."
In a September 18 reply to Human Rights Watch (available in English and Arabic), JNIM's Sharia Committee (Comité chariatique in French) sought to justify the attack, saying that even if those targeted were forced to dig the trench, "this would not be an excuse to spare them. Anyone who ... follows this regime ... deserves to be held accountable."
Witnesses said that, on August 24, JNIM fighters did not attack the military base in Barsalogho, which is located about 4.5 kilometers from the site of the attack, with up to 100 soldiers. They also said that when the attack began, fewer than 15 soldiers and about the same number of VDPs responded but were rapidly overwhelmed by the JNIM forces and were either killed or forced to retreat. They said that those soldiers and VDPs were at an outpost meant to secure the work of civilians digging the trench.
Witnesses also said that most of the soldiers stationed at the base remained there but sent a military vehicle and an ambulance to support their colleagues at the outpost. The JNIM fighters also overpowered those reinforcements, and when the attack was over, took the military vehicle and the ambulance with them.
In his response to the Human Rights Watch inquiry, the justice minister said that the high court in the city of Kaya had opened an investigation to shed light on the attack at Barsalogho and identify those responsible.
The laws of war prohibit attacks on civilians unless they are "directly participating in the hostilities." Although the trench itself is a legitimate military target, civilians working on it are not directly participating in hostilities and cannot be deliberately attacked. Executing anyone in custody is a war crime.
"As Islamist armed groups continue to commit war crimes across Burkina Faso, the government needs to credibly investigate abuses, establish command responsibility, and seek to appropriately prosecute those found responsible," Kaneza Nantulya said. "Burkina Faso's allies should press the government to stop putting civilians at needless risk, including by using them as forced labor in war zones."
For witness accounts and other details, please see below. The names of those interviewed have been withheld for their protection.
Armed Conflict in Burkina Faso
Burkina Faso's armed forces have been fighting insurgencies by JNIM and the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara since the armed groups entered the country from Mali in 2016. The two Islamist armed groups control large swathes of Burkinabè territory; they have attacked civilians as well as government security forces and fought each other.
Over 26,000 people have been killed in the conflict since 2016, including about 15,500 since the military coup in September 2022 and over 6,000 since January 2024, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (ACLED), a nonprofit organization. ACLED also reported that Islamist armed groups killed 1,004 civilians in 259 attacks between January and August and 1,185 civilians in 413 attacks in the same period last year. These figures do not include the attack on Barsalogho.
President Ibrahim Traoré, since taking power in the September 2022 coup, has increased the use of civilian auxiliaries. Then-President Roch Marc Christian Kaboré initially created the VDPs in January 2020 to strengthen security at the local level against Islamist armed groups. In October 2022, the current military authorities opened a campaign to recruit 50,000 more VDPs.
The authorities in Burkina Faso have repeatedly called on people to mobilize behind the war effort and used a sweeping emergency law giving the president extensive powers to combat the Islamist insurgency, including requisitioning people and goods, which has led to a crackdown on peaceful dissent. On May 23, during a meeting with VDPs, President Traoré called on the general population to assist the military in digging trenches around their towns and villages. Human Rights Watch has extensively documented that Islamist armed groups responded to the recruitment of VDPs and the mobilization of civilians in support of the security forces by attacking villages and towns they accused of supporting the military or the VDPs.
Killings in Barsalogho
The JNIM fighters killed scores of civilians who were working on the military trench and others who were nearby between about 10 and 11 a.m. on August 24.
Human Rights Watch's analysis of four videos and review of satellite imagery show that the location of the attack coincided with a new section of the trench, whose construction started in August. This section intersects with the road that leads to the village of Pensa and is nearly four kilometers northeast of the center of Barsalogho.
Witnesses described the horror of seeing JNIM fighters moving up and down the trench while executing people. "They just opened fire on us, shooting at anyone and finishing off survivors," said a 47-year-old farmer who was inside the trench. "I saw how they shot a man who was writhing in pain, then two bodies fell over me, and I played dead to save my life."
In one video that Human Rights Watch verified, the person filming is walking along the trench filming dozens of men wearing a mix of camouflage and civilian clothing firing Kalashnikov-style assault rifles at groups of people who were lying motionless in the trench or had fled into a nearby field. Spades and pickaxes lie next to many of the bodies. At least 133 bodies are visible. Halfway through the video, the man filming starts to shoot at a person who tries to run away and is subsequently shot down. Throughout the 2-minute-and-44-second video, hundreds of shots are heard.
Witnesses said that the fighters spoke Fulfulde, which is the first language of ethnic Fulani people and widely spoken in Burkina Faso.
A 42-year-old woman said:
They [Islamist fighters] were screaming "Allah Akbar" several times and I heard one saying in Fulfulde, "It's over for Barsalogho, Barsalogho has fallen, they are all dead." My brothers stayed in the trench and when the terrorists arrived, they shot them. They would walk along the trench to shoot at people and those who were left were systematically killed. It lasted about an hour. It was terrifying.
Most of those killed were men, but some women and children were also killed. "I lost two daughters, ages 15 and 13, in the attack," said a 48-year-old woman. "We had gone near the trench to look for some baobab leaves to cook, but when gunfire started, they could not escape."
"We got 186 people with bullet wounds," a medical source said. "Of them, 30 women and 20 children, aged between 7 and 10, died."
"What I saw was catastrophic, piles of dead bodies, wounded people bleeding and screaming," said the 42-year-old woman whose brothers stayed in the trench. "I walked in shock past dead bodies everywhere, desperately looking for my two brothers."
The Deaths, the Injured, and the Burials
In its response to Human Rights Watch, the JNIM said that "those we targeted ... are among the oldest and most malicious militias in Burkina Faso.... [T]hey were among the participants in the biggest and most horrific massacres committed in that province, such as the infamous 'Yirgou' massacre in which nearly 300 Fulani people were killed by the Barsalogho militias alone." Human Rights Watch reported on killings in Yirgou, where the Koglweogo, a Burkinabè self-defense group, killed dozens of ethnic Fulani people in January 2019.
JNIM's claims contradict Human Rights Watch's findings that the vast majority of those killed were civilians.
The Collectif Justice Pour Barsalogho (Justice for Barsalogho Collective), formed by a group of residents after the attack, said that up to 400 civilians had been killed. The news channel CNN, citing a French government security assessment, reported that about 600 people had been killed in Barsalogho.
While Human Rights Watch confirmed that at least 133 people died through a video analysis, the total number of people killed and wounded could not be confirmed. However, witnesses said that they saw between 200 and 350 bodies at the Barsalogho city hall, where survivors took the bodies after the JNIM fighters departed.
"It was a bloodbath," said an 18-year-old woman who lost two close relatives and four friends in the attack. "I saw up to 300 bodies when I went to the city hall to identify my relatives who had been shot dead in the attack."
Witnesses said that most of the bodies were buried the day of the attack and the following day in individual graves in the town's cemeteries. Human Rights Watch analyzed satellite images showing an increase in individual graves from May 28 to August 29 in at least three cemeteries within the town, including one less than a kilometer from the Barsalogho military base.
"I lost my son in the attack, as well as four close friends, all men, aged between 26 and 71," said a 47-year-old farmer. "They were buried on August 25 at around 10 a.m. at the Muslim cemetery located on the road to Pensa, about 800 meters from Barsalogho."
Residents said that the bodies of those who could not be identified at the city hall were buried in a mass grave using an excavator on a hillside on the road to Kaya, near a telecommunication tower. Human Rights Watch was not able to verify this information or confirm the exact location of this mass grave, but an analysis of satellite images shows a substantial increase of individual graves less than 100 meters from a telecommunication tower on the outskirts of the city, south of Barsalogho, near the road to Kaya, from May 28 to August 29.
Forced Labor, Beatings, and Threats
Witnesses said that the construction of the trench, meant to serve as a protective barrier to prevent attacks by Islamist armed groups, was carried out by unpaid civilians.
"I've never seen any soldier or VDP digging," said a 35-year-old man. "It was always civilians to do the work and none of them was ever paid. The military said it was for our security and that we all had to mobilize for this collective work."
Witnesses said that the construction was carried out on a voluntary basis until the work on the new trench section, where the attack took place, began in August.
The 47-year-old man said:
At the beginning, the people of Barsalogho had agreed to build the trench. The military would issue communiqués calling on people to mobilize but, usually, after each communiqué, some went digging and some did not, without constraint. However, this time it was by force. Soldiers beat those who tried to feign or resist. Those who did not want to go were systematically beaten. I saw it with my own eyes.
Four witnesses said that on the day of the attack, some women who had gone outside the town early in the morning looking for food had spotted a group of armed men near the attack site and alerted the military. However, the lieutenant in charge of the Barsalogho military base responded that these were his soldiers.
"The women had alerted us," a 28-year-old man said. "Early in the morning of the attack, some of our women had gone out looking for leaves and came back to tell us that there were terrorists near the trench. We told the lieutenant that the women alerted us, but he replied that these armed men were his men."
Military Response to the Attack
Witnesses said that most of the soldiers stationed at the military base in Barsalogho, a short distance away from the attack site, remained there throughout the attack, only sending a military vehicle and an ambulance, to support their colleagues at the outpost. Witnesses said that the military reinforcements were either killed or forced to flee and that, when the attack was over, JNIM fighters took away the military vehicle and the ambulance.
The 47-year-old man said:
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Few soldiers near the trench intervened to respond to the attack as soon as it started. Bullets were flying everywhere. There was some fighting, but it didn't last long. The VDPs supported the military in responding to the attack and they were at the front line. At least four VDPs I knew personally died to defend their position.
An 18-year-old woman said:
It was when the attack started that I understood that few or no soldiers were there to save us.... The soldiers at the base helped the few who were in a more advanced position with a truck and an ambulance, but the terrorists outsmarted them. I know some of the soldiers who fell.
In his response to Human Rights Watch, the justice minister said that the construction of the trench "was undertaken under the protection" of the security forces and VDPs "deployed all along the trench and in its proximity to protect the populations." He added that "during the attack, there was a response from the fighting forces stationed in the locality [Barsalogho] and reinforcements from other localities, as well as support from air vectors."
None of the witnesses interviewed by Human Rights Watch reported having seen any air support from the military.
Some survivors blamed the army for putting civilians in Barsalogho at unnecessary risk by forcing them to dig the trench and for not taking their security seriously by ignoring the women's warning.
"Our security forces' response was not up to the task," said a 52-year-old farmer. "On the day of the attack, the military did not ensure our safety. They handed us over to the terrorists."
"That the military forced people to dig [the trench] led to this massacre because it made us a target for terrorists," said a 39-year-old man. "This bloodshed is the result of the authorities heavily relying on civilians for security."
Witnesses said that the JNIM fighters did not attack the military base in Barsalogho. Human Rights Watch asked the JNIM why the military base was not attacked if soldiers were the target. The JNIM said: "Barsalogho is like a large military barracks, and its people are all fighters.... Even their women have a role in this, as they were, and still are, opening the road and scouting for the army. [...] Some women even underwent training and took up arms." This statement indicates that JNIM dangerously conflated military personnel and civilians, in violation of the laws of war.
Medical Care and Material Assistance
Medical sources and witnesses said that up to 300 people were injured in the attack. Some were treated at the Barsalogho health center, while the most critical cases were treated at the regional hospital in Kaya, about 50 kilometers from Barsalogho, or in the national capital, Ouagadougou.
"Up to 300 people were injured. The health center in Barsalogho was overwhelmed, patients were lying outside, under the trees," said a 28-year-old survivor who took an injured friend to the facility. "Those who were severely injured were evacuated to the hospital in Kaya by the military with a helicopter or by relatives and goodwill people on motorbikes."
On August 25, the director of the Kaya regional hospital issued a statement asking for additional medical, nursing care and administration personnel following "an emergency linked to the massive influx of patients since the morning of August 24, 2024."
In his response to Human Rights Watch, the justice minister said that "measures have been taken to provide psychological, health, and material assistance to all the families of the victims and injured." He did not provide details on the extent of the assistance. Injured people and their relatives said that the authorities had covered the cost for medical care.
Survivors and relatives of the victims said that the day following the attack, authorities, including the government's spokesperson, the security and social action ministers, and the army chief of staff visited Barsalogho to express their solidarity with the population. "They gave two bags of corn and one bag of rice to each head of household," said a 35-year-old farmer who lost two brothers in the attack. "This won't fill the void and the losses though," he concluded.
