Overview
- Human Rights Watch, which released its report Thursday, found 1,837 civilians killed in Burkina Faso from January 2023 to August 2025 with 1,255 attributed to state forces and allied militias, and it said these abuses amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.
- ACLED data corroborates the pattern and shows that in 2025 Burkinabe troops and pro-government Volunteers for the Defence of the Homeland killed 523 civilians compared with 339 killed by jihadist groups JNIM and Islamic State Sahel Province.
- In Mali, ACLED attributes 918 civilian deaths in 2025 to the army and Russia-linked Wagner and Africa Corps versus 232 by jihadists, and it documents a surge in government drone or airstrikes on civilians from four incidents in 2022 to 66 in 2025, including at least 50 killed at the Inatiyara gold site in July 2024.
- HRW says security forces targeted Fulani communities and calls this ethnic cleansing, naming President Ibrahim Traoré and senior commanders as potentially liable, while also documenting JNIM massacres such as at least 133 civilians killed in Barsalogho in August 2024.
- Officials in Burkina Faso and Mali have previously denied extrajudicial killings and did not comment to reporters, as the UN counts more than 2.1 million people displaced in Burkina Faso and aid groups warn that state abuses can drive recruitment to armed groups.