Volunteer militia implicated in new bloodshed in Burkina

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Twenty-eight bodies were found in northwestern Burkina Faso over the weekend, the government said, as human rights activists blamed a volunteer militia set up to support the army’s battle against the jihadists.

Attacks targeting security forces and civilians have increased in recent months, particularly in the jihadist-torn northern and eastern border regions of Mali and Niger.

“The government has been informed of an incident in Nouna (…) on the night of December 30 to 31,” said a government statement on Monday evening.

Preliminary reports “show 28 people killed”, he said, adding that an investigation had been opened to shed “full light” on what had happened, and calling for calm.

But a rights group called the Collective of Communities against Impunity and Stigma (CISC) pointed to the Volunteers for the Defense of the Homeland (VDP) – a civilian auxiliary force that supports the military in its fight of seven years against jihadists.

“Armed civilians claiming to be” the VDP have “freely committed organized looting and abuses targeting civilian populations on the basis of appearance and stigma,” the CISC said.

Nouna’s public prosecutor, Armel Sama, said in a statement that “most of the victims, all men, were shot.”

This landlocked country in West Africa is one of the poorest and most unstable countries in the world.

Since 2015, it has grappled with an insurgency led by jihadists affiliated with al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group that has claimed tens of thousands of lives and displaced around two million people.

– Volunteering –

The VDP, established in December 2019, includes civilian volunteers who receive two weeks of military training and then work alongside the military, usually performing surveillance, information-gathering or escort duties.

Commentators have long feared that poorly trained volunteers could be easy targets for jihadists — and could also dangerously stoke ethnic friction without proper checks.

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The CISC said the weekend events in Nouna began with a reported “terrorist attack” on a local VDP headquarters.

Gunmen then carried out “deadly attacks in retaliation”, he added. The victims said the attackers were VDPs who were members of a traditional hunting community called Dozo, according to the CISC.

CISC secretary Daouda Diallo called on the authorities to pay “particular attention” to the situation.

“Armed terrorist groups exploit this kind of transgression to lure recruits into the public,” Diallo warned.

Three incidents of kidnappings and extrajudicial executions allegedly involving Dozo or VDP occurred in the run-up to the weekend events, CISC said.

Government spokesman Jean Emmanuel Ouedraogo said the “drama” of the weekend “is taking place as Burkina Faso has launched an operation to mobilize the entire population in a united action to fight terrorism. “.

In November, the authorities, backed by a patriotic campaign, launched a campaign to recruit 50,000 VDPs, of whom 90,000 registered.

The government is “fundamentally opposed to all forms of abuse or violation of human rights for any reason,” the statement said.

– Turmoil –

The VDP bears the brunt of the losses suffered by the security forces in the face of the jihadist campaign.

Hundreds of volunteers have died, including in ambushes or explosions caused by improvised explosive devices (IEDs) planted along the roads.

The escalating toll among the army, police and VDP sparked two military coups last year, launched by officers furious at their failure to stem the bloodshed.

The latest strongman is Captain Ibrahim Traoré, who on September 30 ousted Lieutenant-Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba.

Damiba took the helm in January 2022 from the last elected president, Roch Marc Christian Kaboré.

On December 29, military prosecutors said they were investigating a new attempt to “destabilize” the country.

They said they arrested a chief warrant officer and a sergeant who a whistleblower said had been in contact with Lt. Col. Emmanuel Zoungrana, a prominent officer who was arrested in January 2022 and released in December.

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