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The United States and the United Kingdom have called on Burkina Faso to investigate the recent civilian deaths reported in two northern villages.

In a joint statement issued on Monday, both nations expressed concern about the allegations of massacres involving the Burkinabe military forces in late February. They emphasized the importance of holding those responsible accountable.

This follows a report from Human Rights Watch, which claimed that roughly 223 villagers were executed by the Burkinabe military. This act is part of a broader accusation that these forces targeted civilians, which some claim are aiding jihadist terrorists in parts of the country that these groups have significant control or influence over.

After this development, some Western news outlets, including BBC Africa and Voice of America, were suspended in the country. According to officials, the suspensions directly responded to their coverage of the Human Rights Watch report. In addition, other stations, including a French television news outlet, also received suspensions and restricted access to their websites. The government argues that the moves were made because there is a “media campaign orchestrated around these accusations” which “shows the unavowed intention … to discredit our fighting forces.”

Burkina Faso responds:
Communications Minister Rimtalba Jean Emmanuel Ouedraogo has criticized the Human Rights Watch report. He said, “The government of Burkina Faso strongly rejects and condemns such baseless accusations. The killings at Nodin and Soro led to the opening of a legal inquiry. While this inquiry is underway to establish the facts and identify the authors, HRW has been able, with boundless imagination, to identify ‘the guilty’ and pronounce its verdict.”