Islamic terrorism has troubled Burkina Faso, the landlocked West African nation once touted as a model for the future of West Africa, for years now. Many people have been killed and more displaced. However, AP News reports that in a recent incident Burkinabe security forces have killed at least thirty-one unarmed people.
Burkina Faso’s security forces reportedly killed 31 unarmed men in the country’s north earlier this month, according to a report on Monday by Human Rights Watch.
The killings occurred on April 9, hours after the men were detained during a government counterterrorism operation in the town of Djibo in the Sahel region, the report said.
The West African nation continues to be wracked by violence linked to Islamic extremists and local defense militias, which has displaced nearly 840,000 people within Burkina Faso.
The country’s ill-equipped military has been previously accused by rights groups of committing human rights atrocities in an attempt to combat the violence. Since 2017, Human Rights Watch has documented the killing of several hundred men by government security forces for their alleged support of extremist groups.
“This is hardly an isolated incident. The Burkinabe security forces face a real and serious threat as armed Islamists murder civilians and terrorize the population,” Corinne Dufka, West Africa director for Human Rights Watch told the AP.
“But committing atrocities in the name of security is both unlawful and deeply counterproductive, for it only pushes more and more people seeking revenge into the ranks of the armed Islamists.” (source)
Shoebat.com has said that Burkina Faso, because of her location and the number and seriousness of crises taking place there, needs to be watched as a potential source for another major migration of people out of West Africa and into Europe. This would follow the current migration wave taking place from the Middle East through Turkey and into the Balkan Peninsula, likewise coming after the 2016 crisis that was a crucial factor in reviving nationalism throughout Europe and especially in the Germanic lands.
There is a horrendous humanitarian crisis taking place right now, and if it is not dealt with effectively and another wave comes to Europe, it could push not only more nationalism, but drive calls for militarism that could be used to lead to war.
The COVID-19 virus incident is very serious, but viruses eventually go away. If a mass movement of people takes place, the effects will not go away, and the problem will not be the Burkinabe people, but those who seek to use their plight for promoting nationalist causes that lead to war and likely not only the death of those people, but millions more in another global conflict.