New documents verified by FRANCE 24 illustrate the scale of the atrocities committed by the Burkina Faso army on February 25, 2024. In April, the NGO Human Rights Watch reported the massacre of 223 civilians, including women and children. New evidence shows other killings committed by the army between May 3 and 9 -10 in several towns in eastern Burkina Faso.
FRANCE 24 was able to consult and verify documents detailing the scale of massacres allegedly committed by the Burkina Faso army on February 25, 2024 in the Soro area of Burkina Faso’s northern Yatenga district and of the latest massacres south of Dori.
A report published by the NGO Human Rights Watch had already documented the February 25 atrocities, which left at least 223 civilians dead, including women and children.
The latest videos – viewed by Wassim Nasr, a FRANCE 24 journalist specialised in jihadist movements – show “piles of corpses of men, women and children, including very young children” in the village of Soro. Other graphic images show burnt corpses.
“The Human Rights Watch report included satellite images of the mass grave [where people have been buried]. We have collected testimonies from people who had helped to bury the bodies,” says Nasr.
‘Inhabitants are facing the army and jihadists alone’
The latest images of corpses left in several locations south of Dori were taken by JNIM (Group for Supporters of Islam and Muslims) jihadists who were first on the scene, as was also the case after the massacre in Soro and Nondin on February 25.
New images were released of Burkina Faso soldiers filming their own crimes, in the eastern Foutouri area (south of the town of Dori) between May 3 and 9-10, 2024.
In this audio file, Burkina Faso soldiers, mocking the burned corpses, say, “Their meat is well cooked […] they are good for a stew.”
“NGOs have been driven out of this area, so the inhabitants are facing the army and jihadists alone,” says Nasr.
“Today, more people are killed by the armed forces and the militias or auxiliary factions than by jihadists,” says Nasr, backing up his statements with figures.
The army, which accuses the people attacked of colluding with the jihadists, has not yet managed to recapture these areas. Nasr says that “the number of areas outside state control is increasing steadily”.
Other atrocities committed by jihadist groups
The jihadists, for their part, continue to commit atrocities. On February 25, on the day of the army massacre in the north, the jihadist Islamic State group attacked a church in the Dori region, killing around 15 people.
On the same day, JNIM – a jihadist alliance of organisations active in the Sahel region and affiliated to al-Qaeda – attacked army barracks in the town of Natiabouani and residents accused of helping the army. Some civilians were killed in the exchange of fire.