Human Rights Watch (HRW) released Burkina Faso’s armed forces have killed around 1,800 civilians and forcibly displaced others since 2023, according to a report on Wednesday.
The report documents widespread abuses by all parties to the conflict and warns that the scale and systematic nature of the violence could amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity. It calls on the government of Burkina Faso to “investigate and prosecute armed groups responsible for war crimes,” “coordinate with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights,” and “take robust measures (…) to counter discrimination, stigmatization and violence against the Fulani community.”
According to HRW, state security forces and pro-government militias, including the Volunteers for the Defense of the Homeland (VDP), were responsible for mass killings of civilians accused of supporting Islamist armed groups. At the same time, Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wa al-Muslimeen (JNIM), an al-Qaeda-linked group, carried out large-scale attacks on villages, killing and forced displacement of populations perceived to be aligned with the state.
The report includes accounts from people who experienced these attacks. Some survivors highlighted the panic in communities due to the blocked humanitarian aid and the consequences of the violence. HRW notes that JNIM has planted explosive devices on roads and destroyed bridges, water sources and communications infrastructure, which could be unlawful under the laws of war “if they cut off aid to civilians.”
HRW continues stated that attacks by the Burkinabe military and the VDP militias amounted to ethnic cleansing. The report cites video evidence documenting the segregation and killing of more than 130 Fulani civilians between March 8 and March 13, 2025, who were allegedly targeted based solely on their ethnicity.
The results of the report build To earlier Warnings of escalating abuses in Burkina Faso. In February 2026, the group reported that the junta had further restricted political activity and civil liberties, thereby “pulling the plug on political life” amid increasing insecurity.
There are long-standing patterns of abuse previously documented in the Sahel, including unlawful killings and targeting of civilians in counterinsurgency operations, and the latest report suggests that such patterns have increased significantly since 2023.
The uprising Violence Recent reports have also highlighted the increasing number of civilian casualties and instability related to armed group activity by Islamist armed groups in Burkina Faso and the wider Sahel region. Similar concerns have also been raised in Mali, where human rights groups have done so documented blatant war crimes committed by al-Qaeda-affiliated groups.
