At least 60 people were killed in northern Burkina Faso last week by men wearing the uniforms of the national military, according to the authorities.
While the country’s prosecutor stopped short of directly accusing the armed forces of Burkina Faso, he said he had opened an investigation, the latest into whether they had committed human rights abuses. Rights groups have repeatedly alleged that the military and associated groups have committed killings and abuses against the populations they are meant to protect.
The nation, a landlocked country of 20 million people in West Africa, has faced repeated jihadist attacks since 2015 that have displaced two million people, killed thousands, and pushed more than half the country outside of government control.
In seizing power in a coup in September, a military junta vowed to bring back security. But allegations of extrajudicial killings, which have periodically surfaced over the years, have spiked in areas where residents are suspected of supporting the jihadists.
Burkina Faso’s prosecutor, Lamine Kaboré, said in a statement Sunday that he had opened an investigation after receiving a report into the killings of about 60 people in the village of Karma, near the border with Mali.
The killings took place on Thursday, according to an official at the Security Ministry who discussed the events on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t allowed to speak publicly. Mr. Kaboré said that an unknown number of people had also been injured, and that the men in military uniforms had looted some goods.
The statement came just days after the authorities in Burkina Faso announced the opening of an investigation into the killing of seven boys in February, another case in which members of the country’s armed forces were suspected of responsibility.
In a video seen by The New York Times, men wearing the national army uniform can be seen walking among the lifeless bodies of seven boys, who have their hands tied behind their backs. In the video, one of the men slams a rock into a boy’s head. “This one doesn’t want to die,” the man filming the scene on a smartphone says.
“Let’s wait for the one who is going to move, and we’ll kill him,” he says.
According to separate investigations by The Associated Press and the French newspaper Libération, Burkina Faso’s security forces killed the children at a military base near Ouahigouya, a town in the country’s north about 10 miles from Karma, the village where the 60 people were killed.
Burkina Faso’s governments have faced pressure to make their armed forces more accountable, especially as 90,000 residents volunteered last year to take up arms and defend the country in civilian groups working with the army.
In February, Burkina Faso’s Parliament passed a bill strengthening the role of provost marshals, who are responsible for discipline in the military and the upholding of detainees’ rights.
The numerous allegations of abuses against civilians come as Burkina Faso’s military-led government has fallen out with the country’s traditional partners like France, which withdrew hundreds of troops earlier this year. The government has instead sought to strengthen ties with Russia, amid persistent rumors that the Kremlin-backed Wagner private military company could move into the country.
Western and West African governments have repeatedly warned against the destabilizing effect that Wagner could have in Burkina Faso, but its presence there has yet to be confirmed.
