Burkina Faso rejects accusation of villagers' massacre

Burkina Faso has rejected "baseless accusations" that soldiers massacred 223 radical successful attacks successful February.

A Human Rights Watch study alleged the service killed 179 radical successful Soro colony and 44 others successful Nondin, astatine slightest 56 of who were children, connected 25 February.

The NGO said this was "among the worst service abuse" incidents successful the state successful astir a decade.

Burkinabè authorities said they had opened a ineligible enquiry to "establish the facts" and condemned HRW's report.

"The authorities of Burkina Faso powerfully rejects and condemns specified baseless accusations," communications curate Rimtalba Jean Emmanuel Ouedraogo said successful a connection precocious connected Saturday.

The curate besides expressed his astonishment that "while this enquiry is nether mode to found the facts and place the authors, HRW has been able, with boundless imagination, to place 'the guilty' and pronounce its verdict".

In a connection released connected Thursday, HRW said the alleged wide killings "appear to beryllium portion of a wide subject run against civilians accused of collaborating with Islamist equipped groups, and whitethorn magnitude to crimes against humanity".

Villagers who survived the onslaught told HRW that a subject convoy of much than 100 soldiers descended connected Nondin village, astir 30 minutes aft Islamist fighters passed nearby.

The soldiers went door-to-door, ejecting residents from their homes.

"They past rounded up villagers successful groups earlier opening occurrence connected them," the study added, citing witnesser and subsister accounts.

The soldiers arrived successful Soro, astir 5km (3 miles) away, an hr later, besides gathering and shooting astatine villagers, the survivors added.

In some villages, the soldiers besides changeable astatine those who attempted to fell oregon escape, witnesses said.

The alleged wide killings are believed to beryllium retaliation by the military, which accused the villagers of aiding equipped Islamist fighters.

They followed an onslaught by Islamist fighters connected a adjacent subject campy successful the the bluish Yatenga province.

A subsister was quoted arsenic saying that earlier the shootings, the soldiers accused the residents of failing to cooperate with them by not informing them of the movements of the Islamist fighters.

"The massacres successful Nondin and Soro villages are conscionable the latest wide killings of civilians by the Burkina Faso subject successful their counterinsurgency operations," said Tirana Hassan, enforcement manager of Human Rights Watch.

The Sahel state is ruled by a subject junta, which seized powerfulness successful a coup successful 2022, promising to extremity the insurgency.

The unit has nevertheless continued to escalate, with much than a 3rd of Burkina Faso controlled by jihadist groups.

International and quality rights groups including the European Union and UN person accused Burkina Faso of superior quality rights violations successful its combat against insurgency, including the indiscriminate killings and forced disappearances of dozens of civilians.

Supporters of the subject junta person antecedently criticised the media for reporting alleged atrocities, saying that the reporting is designed to deed the morale of the Burkina Faso equipped forces.

The connection from the authorities besides deed retired astatine what it described arsenic a "media run orchestrated astir these accusations" which "shows the avowed intention... to discredit our warring forces".

Broadcasts of BBC and Voice of America person been stopped and the websites of some organisations banned for 2 weeks, officials said.

In a connection connected Thursday, Burkina Faso's media regulator warned each media outlets against covering the report, threatening sanctions, state-owned media reported.