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A new report has found that the majority of civilian deaths in Burkina Faso’s ongoing conflict were caused by government forces and allied militias rather than jihadist groups.

Getting into it: In a report released by Human Rights Watch (which included interviews with more than 450 witnesses and extensive verification using satellite imagery, videos, and other open-source data), the organization documented 57 incidents between January 2023 and August 2025 in which at least 1,837 civilians were killed across 11 regions. Of those deaths, roughly 1,255 were attributed to government forces and allied militias known as the Volunteers for the Defense of the Homeland (VDPs), compared to at least 582 killings by the al-Qaeda-linked group Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM). HRW concluded that all sides committed war crimes, but stressed that state forces were responsible for the majority of civilian killings.

The report levels particularly serious accusations against Burkina Faso’s military and VDP militias, describing patterns of mass killings, collective punishment, forced displacement, torture, and unlawful detention. It highlights evidence that civilians were often targeted not for direct involvement in hostilities but for living in areas under jihadist control or being suspected of sympathizing with armed groups. HRW argues that these abuses were not isolated incidents but part of broader, coordinated operations, suggesting potential command responsibility among senior leaders. Several large-scale massacres are cited, including a late-2023 military operation in northern areas near Djibo where large numbers of civilians were reportedly killed across multiple villages over a short period of time.

A central piece of the findings is the systematic targeting of the Fulani ethnic group. HRW states that Fulani communities were frequently accused of supporting JNIM and then subjected to reprisal attacks, with entire villages destroyed, civilians executed, and populations forcibly displaced. The report characterizes this pattern as ethnic persecution and possible ethnic cleansing, pointing to inflammatory rhetoric, the scale and consistency of attacks, and coordination between military units and militias as evidence that the targeting may reflect policy rather than rogue behavior.

According to the report, officials in Burkina Faso have censored media, blocked critical reporting, and intimidated or punished dissenters through arrests, abductions, or forced conscription, making it difficult to fully assess the scale of abuses.

At the same time, the report details serious abuses by JNIM, which it says has carried out executions, mass killings, sieges, looting, and attacks on civilians who refuse to submit to its authority or are suspected of cooperating with the government. Among the deadliest incidents cited is an August 2024 attack in Barsalogho where at least 133 civilians were killed in a matter of hours. JNIM is also accused of destroying infrastructure, blocking humanitarian aid, and using violence and intimidation to control territory, contributing significantly to civilian suffering.

Despite the findings, the government has repeatedly denied allegations of wrongdoing, maintaining that its forces target only “terrorists” and dismissing reports of abuses as false or manipulative.