Around sixty civilians from a village in northern Burkina Faso were massacred on Thursday April 20 by men in Burkina Faso army uniform caught in the spiral of violence since 2015, the prosecutor of Ouahigouya (north) announced on Sunday. ).
The prosecutor of the High Court of Ouahigouya, Lamine Kaboré, writes in a press release sent to Agence France-Presse (AFP) to have been informed by the gendarmerie of the city “only in the village of Karma”, located in the province of Yatenga, “about 60 people were killed by people wearing uniforms of our national armed forces”.
“The wounded have been evacuated and are currently being treated within our health structures”, he added, specifying that “the perpetrators of these facts would have taken away various goods”. The prosecutor indicates that, “seized of these facts, the seriousness of which is proven”, he “gave the necessary instructions (…) in order to elucidate them and to question all the people who are involved in them”. He launched “an appeal to all those who have information on these facts” to “denounce them”.
According to residents contacted by AFP, survivors said that “more than a hundred people on motorcycles and pick-ups raided Karma last Thursday. Dozens of men and youths were executed by these men dressed in military uniforms.” These survivors spoke of a death toll “around 80 dead”.
This massacre occurred a week after the death of six soldiers and thirty-four Volunteers for the Defense of the Homeland (VDP, civilian auxiliaries of the army), killed during an attack by suspected jihadists near the village of Aorema, about fifteen kilometers from Ouahigouya. The village of Karma is about forty kilometers from that of Aorema, close to the Malian border, and attracts many illegal gold miners.
A “punitive expedition” in early April
In early April, Burkina Faso’s military justice announced that it would conduct an investigation to “shed light” on the deaths of several civilians in “serious altercations” with soldiers in Dori, also in the north of the country. According to the city’s prefect, Abrahamane Mande, soldiers fired automatic weapons and beat citizens, “causing loss of life and injuries to the population”. Residents of Dori said it was a “punitive expedition” led by soldiers after the assassination of a soldier, which was confirmed by the Burkinabe Movement for Human and Peoples’ Rights ( MBDHP).
Burkina Faso, the scene of two military coups in 2022, has been caught since 2015 in a spiral of jihadist violence that appeared in Mali and Niger a few years earlier and which has spread beyond their borders. The violence has left more than 10,000 dead – civilians and soldiers – over the past seven years, according to NGOs, and some 2 million displaced.
Burkina Faso’s transitional president, Captain Ibrahim Traoré, who came to power in a putsch in September 2022, signed a one-year “general mobilization” decree on Wednesday, allowing the requisitioning of “young people” if necessary. aged 18 and over” to go and fight against the jihadists who are bloodying the country.
