Burkina Faso experienced a severe deterioration in its human rights situation throughout 2024. This period saw an intensification of deadly attacks against civilians by Islamist armed groups, alongside documented abuses committed by military forces and pro-government militias during counter-terrorism operations. 

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights voiced profound concern over the increasing number of civilians killed by both armed groups and state actors. 

Estimates indicate that approximately 6,000 civilians perished in conflict-related violence between January and August 2024 alone. By August, the conflict, which began in 2016, had forced over 2.3 million people to flee their homes. This figure includes 2.1 million internally displaced individuals and more than 200,000 who sought refuge in neighboring countries. 

The Burkinabè military junta, which seized power in a 2022 coup, actively suppressed media outlets, political opposition, and dissent, thereby shrinking the country’s civic space. 

In May 2023, Prime Minister Apollinaire Kyélem de Tambèla announced the postponement of elections initially scheduled for July 2024. Following national talks on May 25, 2024, largely boycotted by opposition factions, the junta declared its intention to remain in power for an additional five years. 

Military authorities also imposed restrictions on the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals. In July, the junta approved a new family code that criminalizes homosexuality, though specific penalties were not detailed. 

On November 9, a government source informed media outlets that the Burkinabè junta planned to reinstate the death penalty, which had been abolished by the 2018 penal code. The last known executions in Burkina Faso occurred in 1988. 

On January 28, the junta announced its withdrawal from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), alongside Mali and Niger. This decision limits the ability of Burkinabè citizens to seek justice through the ECOWAS Court of Justice. 

On July 7, military leaders from Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger signed a treaty establishing the Alliance of Sahel States Confederation (AES Confederation), expanding upon a mutual defense pact signed in September 2023. 

Abuses perpetrated by Islamist armed groups 

Islamist armed groups killed 1,004 civilians across 259 attacks between January and August 2024. This contrasts with 1,185 civilians killed in 413 attacks during the same period in 2023, according to data from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (ACLED). Many of these assaults targeted communities that had joined the Volunteers for the Defense of the Homeland (VDP), civilian auxiliaries of the Burkinabè armed forces. Islamist armed groups continued to besiege dozens of localities, depriving residents of access to food and humanitarian aid. 

On August 24, fighters from the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (GSIM) attacked hundreds of civilians constructing a defensive trench near the town of Barsalogho in the Centre-Nord region, or who were in the vicinity. This assault resulted in the deaths of at least 133 people, including dozens of women and children, and injured at least 200 others. 

On June 11, suspected GSIM fighters attacked the town of Sindo in the Hauts-Bassins region, killing at least 20 civilian men. This attack appeared to be in retaliation against the local community, which GSIM accused of having joined the VDP ranks. 

On June 16, GSIM claimed responsibility for a June 11 attack on a military base in Mansila, Sahel region, during which at least 20 civilians were killed and their homes set ablaze. 

On May 22, suspected GSIM fighters attacked a VDP base and a displaced persons’ camp in Goubré, Nord region, killing at least 72 civilians. This attack was reportedly in retaliation against villagers who refused to join GSIM. 

On March 29, 15 women were reported missing after venturing outside the town of Djibo, Sahel region, to collect firewood. Relatives of the disappeared women suspected GSIM of killing or abducting them. 

Islamist armed groups also killed Christians who had not abandoned their faith despite warnings. 

On February 25, Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS) killed at least 12 civilians during an attack on a Catholic church in the village of Essakane, Sahel region. On August 25, Islamist fighters killed at least 26 civilians in the village of Sanaba, in western Burkina Faso. 

Abuses perpetrated by state security forces and pro-government militias 

The Burkinabè army and VDP were responsible for the deaths of at least one thousand civilians between January and July 2024, according to ACLED, and forcibly disappeared dozens more during counter-terrorism operations in 2024. 

On February 25, the army summarily executed at least 223 civilians, including 56 children, in the villages of Nondin and Soro in the Nord region. These killings were reportedly carried out in retaliation for an attack by Islamist fighters on a Burkinabè military camp outside the city of Ouahigouya. These massacres, part of a broader military campaign against civilians accused of collaborating with Islamist armed groups, could constitute crimes against humanity. 

Media outlets reported that between April 27 and May 4, soldiers killed up to 400 civilians during counter-terrorism operations across 15 villages in their path. 

In July, a video circulated on social media and verified by Human Rights Watch depicted 18 men in Burkinabè army uniforms, two of whom were seen disemboweling a dismembered body with knives. 

Repression of media and dissent 

The military junta utilized a far-reaching emergency law against journalists, government critics, and magistrates. 

Between August 9 and 12, security forces notified seven magistrates and prosecutors of their conscription, informing them they had been enlisted for military operations against Islamist armed groups from August 14 to November 13. On August 14, six of them reported to a military base in Ouagadougou, the capital. They have not been heard from since. All seven magistrates had initiated legal proceedings against supporters of the junta. 

In February, armed men in civilian clothes abducted Rasmané Zinaba and Bassirou Badjo, two members of the civil society group Balai Citoyen, in Ouagadougou. 

In June and July, Rasmané Zinaba and Bassirou Badjo appeared in two videos published on the Burkinabè state television’s YouTube channel, dressed in military attire and participating in military exercises, likely in a conflict zone. In early November 2023, Burkinabè security forces had notified about a dozen journalists, activists, and political opponents, including Rasmané Zinaba and Bassirou Badjo, that they would be requisitioned for security operations. On December 6, 2023, a Ouagadougou court ruled illegal the military requisitions of Rasmané Zinaba and Bassirou Badjo. 

The military junta also abducted civil society activists and political opponents. 

In January, unidentified men, claiming to be members of national intelligence services, abducted Guy-Hervé Kam, a lawyer and coordinator of the political group Servir et non se servir (SENS), at Ouagadougou International Airport. Guy-Hervé Kam was released on May 29 after the Ouagadougou Court of Appeal ruled against his arrest, but he was re-arrested the next day for “conspiracy” and detained in a military prison. On July 9, a military court ordered Guy-Hervé Kam’s release on bail. On July 31, a military prosecutor summoned Guy-Hervé Kam, again requested his arrest for “attempted destabilization” of the country, and he was incarcerated. 

In June, Serge Oulon, publishing director of L’Événement newspaper, Kalifara Séré, a commentator on the private television channel BF1, and Adama Bayala, also a commentator on the same channel, all critics of the junta, were abducted by unidentified men and remain missing. In October, a member of the Ministry of Justice stated that the three men had been requisitioned by the army. 

Accountability for committed abuses 

Successive Burkinabè governments have made minimal progress in investigating perpetrators of atrocities committed within the conflict since 2016. 

On July 26, Human Rights Watch sent a letter to the Burkinabè Minister of Justice, sharing its findings on alleged abuses by Islamist armed groups and requesting specific answers. In response, the Minister of Justice affirmed that “all allegations […] of human rights abuses committed by terrorists are subject to investigations aimed at […] sanctioning the perpetrators” and that “several judicial inquiries have been opened by military prosecutors or ordinary courts.” 

In 2024, little progress was observed in investigations into several killings committed in 2023. On April 20, 2023, soldiers killed 83 men, 28 women, and 45 children, and burned homes in and around the village of Karma in Yatenga province. Authorities announced an investigation but provided no follow-up. On November 12, 2023, the European Union called for an investigation into a massacre in the Centre-Nord region where approximately one hundred people were reportedly killed. The government stated that on November 5, 2023, armed men killed at least 70 people in Zaongo village and that the incident was under investigation.