Displaying items by tag: Burkino Faso

Violent extremists have spread across Burkina Faso. Traditional hunters and crime-fighting vigilantes have filled a governance vacuum and add a complexity to the crisis. A new group provides locals with weapons and two weeks’ training to combat jihadists. Many worry it will make matters worse. National troops are implicated in countless rights abuses, while French counter-terrorism forces have little impact. A jihadist attack on a church recently left 24+ people dead in a crisis that has displaced over 750,000 people since the beginning of last year. This insecurity has left displaced people in rural areas outside the reach of aid groups - and a lack of clear information on which militants are operating where - has made it difficult for humanitarians to negotiate access to affected people. Most attacks are attributed to groups linked to al-Qaeda and IS, with a patchwork of self-defence gangs and poorly equipped soldiers also being responsible for abuses.

Burkina Faso is quickly going from a peaceful farming nation to an extremist breeding ground. Attacks by IS and al-Qaeda militants have quadrupled since 2017. Over 70,000 people have fled their homes this year. Recently, gunmen in the north surrounded a group of people and executed four Christians who they found wearing crosses. Previously Christians, Muslims, religious people, and those with no faith lived together peacefully, but now violence is directed specifically at Christians, looking for religious symbols and attacking churches. The militants are really trying to bring division between the Muslims and Christians with a ‘divide and conquer’ mentality. This extremism can be traced back to the fall of Libya, when militants trickled into neighbouring countries like Burkina Faso, bringing their weapons and violence with them. While the rest of the world was focused on surging extremist movements in east and central Africa, the seeds of militant Islam in West Africa were quietly being sown.