This is the last article you can read this month
You can read more article this month
You can read more articles this month
Sorry your limit is up for this month
Reset on:
Please help support the Morning Star by subscribing here
SOLDIERS in Burkina Faso killed 223 civilians, including babies and many children, in attacks on two villages accused of co-operating with militants, Human Rights Watch said in a report published yesterday.
The mass killings took place on February 25 in the northern villages of Nondin and Soro and 56 children were among the dead, according to the report.
The human rights organisation called on the United Nations and the African Union to provide investigators and to support local efforts to bring those responsible to justice.
“The massacres in Nondin and Soro villages are just the latest mass killings of civilians by the Burkina Faso military in their counterinsurgency operations,” Human Rights Watch executive director Tirana Hassan said in a statement.
“International assistance is critical to support a credible investigation into possible crimes against humanity.”
The once-peaceful country has been ravaged by violence as government-backed forces take on jihadists linked to al-Qaida and Islamic State.
Both sides have targeted civilians caught in the middle, displacing more than two million people, of which over half are children. Most attacks go unpunished and unreported.
