US-UK ‘gravely concerned’ by Burkina Faso massacre reports, media crackdown

The United States and United Kingdom have said they are ‘gravely concerned by reports of massacres of civilians’ by military forces in Burkina Faso in late February, together with a crackdown on media reporting the alleged killings.

‘A recent Human Rights Watch report details first-hand accounts of the execution of at least 223 civilians, including 56 children, in the villages of Nondin and Soro in Burkina Faso’s Yatenga province,’ the US State Department noted in the joint statement with the UK government, 29 April.

‘We call on the Transition Authorities to thoroughly investigate these massacres and hold those responsible to account,’ it said. ‘We strongly oppose the suspensions of media outlets, including VOA and the BBC, the blocking of Human Rights Watch’s website, and restrictions placed on all media from reporting on their articles…We strongly urge Burkina Faso’s Superior Council of Communication (CSC) to reconsider its suspensions of media outlets.’

The military government in Burkina Faso seized power in a coup in September 2022, leading to the imposition of sanctions by the Economic Community of West African States (‘ECOWAS’), which were lifted in February of this year. The government has recently banned the international watchdog Human Rights Watch and cracked down on several foreign media outlets that have reported on the alleged massacre, including Germany’s Deutsche Welle (‘DW’) and French network TV5Monde.

https://www.state.gov/joint-statement-on-civilian-massacres-and-media-suspensions-in-burkina-faso/