{"id":30614,"date":"2026-04-02T12:02:46","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T10:02:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&p=30614"},"modified":"2026-04-02T12:02:46","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T10:02:46","slug":"burkina-mali-troops-kill-more-civilians-than-jihadists-do","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/burkina-mali-troops-kill-more-civilians-than-jihadists-do\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cBurkina, Mali troops kill more civilians than jihadists do\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Government and allied forces in Burkina Faso have killed more than twice as many civilians as Islamist militants have since 2023, according to a tally of incidents documented in a report, opens new tab published on Thursday by Human Rights Watch.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The pattern is broadly consistent with data shared \u200bwith Reuters by Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (ACLED), a conflict monitoring group, and also applies to neighbouring Mali.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In that country, which like Burkina Faso is ruled by a military-led government \u200cthat seized power in a coup, government forces and their partners have been responsible for three to four times as many civilian killings as jihadists over the last two years, according to ACLED’s data.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Violence involving jihadist groups in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger has surged since 2021, making the Sahel region a global terrorism hotspot.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Widespread deaths of civilians at the hands of government forces could bolster the political legitimacy of militant groups and fuel recruitment, analysts said.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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They could also complicate steps by the United States to improve relations \u200bwith Sahel governments, which expelled French and other Western forces after their respective coups.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Burkina Faso’s security forces and allied militias “appear to be more brutal and violent” than militant groups like the local al \u200bQaeda affiliate, Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), said Ilaria Allegrozzi, senior Sahel researcher at Human Rights Watch.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The Burkinabe forces’ behaviour is part of a regional pattern, raising concerns \u2060about military indiscipline and its consequences for counterinsurgency efforts, she said.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Spokesperson for the Mali and Burkina Faso governments did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Reuters.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The Burkina Faso government and JNIM’s Sharia Committee \u200bin Burkina Faso did not respond to requests for comment from HRW.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Mali and Burkina Faso have previously denied allegations of extrajudicial killings, saying instead that their forces had killed “terrorists”.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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–Reuters–<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":15322,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[78,26],"class_list":["post-30614","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-featured","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"Burkina and Mali killings","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/30614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/30614\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30615,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/30614\/revisions\/30615"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=30614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}