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How One of the Most Stable Nations in West Africa Descended Into Mayhem [1]

['Nick Turse']

Date: 2020-10-15

There are more than 60 distinct ethnic groups in Burkina Faso, but about half the population belong to the Mossi people, who are traditionally farmers. The much smaller Fulani ethnic group are predominantly Muslim cattle herders, many of them seminomadic, and they have long expressed discontent with government neglect of their communities and their poor representation among the political elite and in public-sector jobs. The Fulani, concentrated in the northern part of the country, where the terrorists operate, may be the most stigmatized and disaffected minority and accordingly have been the prime focus for recruitment by Islamist militants, even as Fulani civilians frequently become victims of jihadist attacks. At the same time, there’s no question that Fulani are the prime target of attacks by government troops. “On one side, they have a problem with the terrorists,” said Souaibou Diallo, a Burkinabe religious scholar and peace activist. “On the other side, they have a problem with the armed forces. They are caught between two fires.”

The present government came to power in a democratic election following the fall of Blaise Compoaré, an army officer who seized power in a coup in 1987 and held onto the presidency for 27 years. Compoaré was toppled by popular protests in 2014, and the country suffered a year of turmoil, as civilian and military powers struggled for control. Roch Kaboré, who once served as prime minister under Compaoré but later formed an opposition party, was elected president in late 2015, in an election widely considered to have been fair and valid. His military, troubled by internal strife and troops who refuse to serve in dangerous areas, has frequently failed to locate and engage jihadists and has increasingly lashed out against civilians.

Earlier this year, the U.S. State Department issued a report implicating Kaboré’s government in a litany of human rights abuses, including extrajudicial killings, forced disappearances, torture, arbitrary detentions and “crimes involving violence or threats of violence targeting members of national, racial and ethnic minorities.” Human Rights Watch documented more than 60 killings of civilians by armed Islamists between late 2017 and February 2019, but it uncovered more than double that number — 130 extrajudicial killings — by the Burkinabe security forces over that same period. Those executions and other abuses by government troops occurred in at least 19 separate incidents. This summer, Human Rights Watch reported that residents of the northern town Djibo frequently discovered corpses, around 180 in all, dumped along roadways, under bridges and in vacant lots, between November 2019 and June 2020. Locals said a majority were Fulani and that many were found bound, blindfolded and shot. There were no witnesses to the killings, but the locals who found the victims — sometimes relatives or acquaintances — overwhelmingly blamed government forces. “I have absolutely no doubt that atrocities, including extrajudicial executions by the dozens, have been perpetrated by members of the Burkinabe defense and security forces,” Human Rights Watch’s West Africa director, Corinne Dufka, said.

Burkina Faso’s government has failed to acknowledge most of the reported atrocities, and its defense minister, Chérif Sy, did not respond to repeated requests for an interview to discuss the security situation in his country. Simon Compaoré, who previously oversaw key components of the Burkinabe security forces as interior minister and is now president of the People’s Movement for Progress, the ruling political party, was more forthcoming. “Some of those incidents are true, but some are exaggerations,” he said of Human Rights Watch’s reports. Compaoré said acting swiftly against suspected terrorists is important for boosting the spirits of security forces in the wake of losses to jihadists. “We have to do everything to make sure we keep the morale up,” he said of the targeted killings. “We’re doing this, but we’re not shouting it from the rooftops.” He also acknowledged abuses beyond the bounds of official sanction. “Soldiers are human beings above anything else. When they see deaths, the chopping off of hands, and they see it again and again, there comes a point when they just crack,” he explained. “There are errors. There are errors in any army.”

These supposed errors continue to add up. Burkinabe security forces reportedly killed at least 421 civilians in 2019, a majority of them from the Fulani community — 170 more than the number of militants they reportedly killed during the same span, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project. Experts say that Burkina Faso’s atrocity-ridden counterterrorism campaign serves to bolster the ranks of Islamist militant groups. “About 80 percent of those who join terrorist groups told us that it isn’t because they support jihadism,” said Diallo, the Muslim scholar and peace activist. “It’s only because the armed forces are not acting smart. They come into villages and are extremely harsh.”

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[1] Url: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/15/magazine/burkina-faso-terrorism-united-states.html

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