{"id":82604,"date":"2020-07-09T11:00:22","date_gmt":"2020-07-09T03:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=82604"},"modified":"2020-07-09T11:01:26","modified_gmt":"2020-07-09T03:01:26","slug":"burkina-faso-180-bodies-found-in-killing-field","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=82604","title":{"rendered":"Burkina Faso: 180 bodies found in ‘killing field’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"HRW<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

HRW urged the government to uncover who had turned Djibo into a ‘killing field’<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n


OUAGADOUGOU, July 9 (NNN-AGENCIES) — At least 180 bodies have been found in mass graves in northern Burkina Faso where soldiers are fighting jihadists, a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Available evidence suggests government forces were involved in mass extrajudicial executions,” HRW says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over seven months, the bodies had been dumped near the town of Djibo in groups of up to 20, before being buried by local residents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Burkina Faso’s defence minister suggested militants might be to blame.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It is difficult for the population to distinguish between armed terrorist groups and the defence and security forces,” Ch\u00e9rif Moumina Sy told the campaign group in response to the findings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the minister said the government would investigate the allegations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Burkina Faso, a landlocked country in West Africa, has been fighting Islamist insurgents with ties to al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group since 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Corinne Dufka, Sahel director at HRW, said Djibo had been turned into a “killing field”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The campaign group said the government should seek assistance from the UN and others to conduct proper exhumations, return the remains to families and hold those responsible to account.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The men had been found shot dead under bridges, in fields and along major roads within a 5km radius of Djibo between November 2019 and June 2020, HRW said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to HRW, an ethnic dynamic underscores the violence in the north where jihadist groups largely recruit from the nomadic Peul or Fulani communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their attacks have primarily targeted farming groups including the Mosssi, Foulse, and Gourmantche.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most of those found dead near Djibo were Peul, who are perceived to support the armed Islamists, the HRW report says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The security crisis in the Sahel began when an alliance of separatists and Islamist militants took over northern Mali in 2012. France then launched a military intervention against them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although a peace deal was signed in 2015, it was never fully implemented.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New armed groups have since emerged and expanded to central Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, including groups linked to al-Qaeda and the Daesh group. — NNN-AGENCIES
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

HRW urged the government to uncover who had turned Djibo into a ‘killing field’ OUAGADOUGOU, July 9 (NNN-AGENCIES) — At least 180 bodies have been found in mass graves in northern Burkina Faso where soldiers are fighting jihadists, a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report says. “Available evidence suggests government forces were involved in mass extrajudicial […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":82606,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[213],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82604"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=82604"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82604\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/82606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=82604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=82604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=82604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}