Statement
As the 45th session of the Human Rights Council draws to a close, the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) and its partners within the SOS-Torture Network urgently call upon the Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples and all Council members to direct specific attention towards the Peul populations in Burkina Faso. These communities find themselves caught in the severe grip of the ongoing counter-terrorism struggle across the Sahel region.
Since 2016, the Peul people of Burkina Faso have endured egregious human rights violations, which in many instances could constitute international crimes. The sheer scale of massacres in certain areas raises grave concerns, potentially indicating ethnic cleansing given their widespread, systematic, and indiscriminate nature.
These grave abuses frequently involve extrajudicial executions of thousands of civilians, perpetrated either by state security forces, often aided by state-supported self-defense groups, or by non-state armed groups. Between January 2019 and May 2020 alone, hundreds of civilians were slaughtered in locations such as Yirgou, Kain Ouro, Banh, Barga, Djibo, and Tawalbougou. Furthermore, thousands more, including children, languish in inhumane conditions within prisons, notably in Kaya and Loumbila, following arbitrary arrests and incommunicado detentions, often without ever encountering a magistrate or legal counsel. Compounding these issues, a pervasive environment of discrimination and stigmatization has developed against these vulnerable populations, who also face acute food insecurity.
Despite numerous reports and complaints lodged with judicial authorities, the Burkinabé government has failed to identify or sanction those responsible for these severe human rights violations. We implore the Human Rights Council to recommend that the authorities in Burkina Faso implement comprehensive security and judicial measures to establish a protective environment for this imperiled group.