The European Union (EU) on Sunday, November 12, called on the military regime in power in Burkina Faso to “shed light” on a “massacre” of civilians which reportedly left around a hundred dead earlier in the week. “Nearly a hundred civilians, including women and children, were reportedly killed in a massacre in the village of Zaongo, in the North-Central region,” according to an EU statement, which calls for “ to shed light on the circumstances of this killing in order to determine responsibilities.
The head of African affairs at the US State Department, Molly Phee, declared on Friday on X (formerly Twitter) that she was “shocked and saddened” by the news of the massacre. “The US government condemns this attack in the strongest possible terms,” she said, also calling on Burkinabe authorities to investigate.
The latter have not yet reacted officially. “An investigation has been opened to shed light on the massacre. Communication will follow in due course,” a Burkinabe security source told AFP.
According to Jeune Afrique magazine, the massacre was carried out by unidentified men on November 6. Several publications on social networks in recent days have shown photos of corpses of women and children, presented as residents of Zaongo.
“It is difficult to put forward figures because the bodies were buried without any real report,” a resident of the area told AFP: “The massacre took place two days after fighting between the security forces and terrorists. Zaongo was one of the few villages in the area that had not yet been emptied by terrorists. Some suspected the residents of collaborating with them. »
Spiral of violence
Since 2015, Burkina Faso has been caught in a spiral of violence attributed to jihadist groups affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State (IS), which has left more than 17,000 civilian and military dead. Many localities targeted by the violence have been deserted, leaving more than 2 million people displaced.
An investigation was opened in April after another massacre of 136 people (including 50 women and 21 children) carried out by men in military uniforms in Karma, in the north of the country. The president of the transition, Captain Ibrahim Traoré, then called for avoiding “hasty conclusions” and not immediately accusing the army of being responsible for this killing.
Captain Traoré, who came to power through a coup in September 2022, claims to make the anti-jihadist fight his priority. In April he signed a one-year “general mobilization” decree, allowing if necessary the requisition of “young people aged 18 and over” to fight against jihadists.
Several civil society organizations in Burkina have recently expressed indignation at the “requisitions” of people critical of the government. According to Human Rights Watch, “a dozen dissidents” are affected by these requisitions. On November 6, Captain Traoré affirmed that “individual freedoms do not take precedence over those of the nation.”
