A Human Rights Watch report released on Thursday claims that between February and May of this year, the Burkina Faso army carried out a series of abuses including extrajudicial killings and torture during an ‘anti-terrorism’ operation in the north-east of the country.
The report alleges the abuses were targeted mainly at people of the Fulani ethnic group.
The report follows international reporting on a massacre carried out in April which saw 150 people killed by the army near the border with Mali.
Burkina Faso has been ravaged by a major insurgency by both the “Islamic State” and al-Qaida which has seen the army resort to brutal measures to restore order.
[Photo: : US Army/Sgt. 1st Class Mary S. Katzenberger]