(Reuters) -Militias allied with Burkina Faso’s military junta have been linked to a “gruesome” massacre western Burkina Faso that left dozens dead this week, Human Rights Watch said late on Friday.
Videos of the incident posted on social media show armed men wearing the uniforms of militias that have formed to aid the government’s fight against Islamist groups, New York-based HRW said in a statement.
The videos show 58 people including women and children “who appear to be dead or dying,” it said, adding that the real number could be higher as bodies were piled on top of each other.
Government spokesman Pingdwende Gilbert Ouedraogo on Saturday said the images on social media comprised a “disinformation campaign” of “false information aimed at undermining social cohesion.”
In a statement, he claimed the militias, together with the army, had been fighting “terrorists” when they discovered women, children and elderly people that had been used as human shields.
The statement said the militias and army “neutralised” around 100 “criminals.”
HRW said the victims appear to be ethnic Fulani, a group authorities accuse of supporting groups linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State.
“The gruesome videos of an apparent massacre by pro-government militias in Burkina Faso underscore the pervasive lack of accountability of these forces,” Ilaria Allegrozzi, senior Sahel researcher at HRW, said in the statement.
The incident took place in and around the city of Solenzo on March 10 and 11, the rights group said.
The men in the videos are wearing identifiable uniforms of the Homeland Defence Volunteers (VDP), it said.
“As the armed conflict in Burkina Faso enters its ninth year, security forces and their allied militias and Islamist armed groups are committing serious crimes against an exhausted population without fear of consequence,” Allegrozzi said.
The Sahel country and its neighbours Mali and Niger are fighting a jihadist insurgency that has spread across the region since it first took root in Mali 13 years ago.
Burkina’s military government, which seized power in a 2022 coup, has faced criticism by rights groups over measures it has taken in the name of national security.
HRW and Amnesty International have accused the junta of kidnapping and conscripting critics, citing victims and civil society groups.
Rights groups and the United Nations have repeatedly accused Malian and Burkinabe troops of serious abuses committed against civilians suspected of collaborating with the jihadists. Both armies have denied wrongdoing.
(Reporting by Dakar newsroom; Writing by Robbie Corey-Boulet and Portia Crowe; Editing by Susan Fenton and Mark Potter)
