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The armed men arrived in the village on motorcycles and surrounded the Catholic church at about 9 am. They stormed inside, ordered the women out, and started shooting at the men and boys who remained. Survivors say at least 12 were killed amid the gunmen’s shouts of “god is great.”
That day in February, the village of Essakane in the Sahel region of Burkina Faso joined a growing list of communities in the country terrorized by increasing Islamist violence.
A group called the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS) later claimed responsibility for the Essakane attack. Witnesses from the village believed it was carried out in retaliation against Christians who refused to abandon their religion, despite an ISGS warning.
The ISGS is not the only armed Islamist group wreaking havoc in Burkina Faso. There’s also the Al-Qaeda-linked Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims, known by the Arabic-derived abbreviation, JNIM.
Since entering Burkina Faso from neighboring Mali in 2016, the two Islamist groups have come to control large swathes of territory in Burkina Faso. In their fight against the government and each other, the two groups have committed rampant abuses, including summary executions, sexual violence, abductions, pillaging, and cutting residents off from food, basic services, and aid.
This year, they have escalated their attacks on civilians, massacring villagers, displaced people, and Christian worshipers.
More than one thousand civilians have been killed in more than 250 attacks by Islamist groups since January, according to the monitor Armed Conflict Location & Event Data.
Civilians can’t rely on authorities to protect them either. Since the coup in September 2022, the areas of Burkina Faso not under Islamist control have been run by a junta whose military forces and associated vigilante groups also commit abuses. As one survivor of a military atrocity summarized the situation: “our own soldiers massacre us.”
Caught between Islamist groups slaughtering them and junta forces also slaughtering them, civilians in Burkina Faso have no one to turn to inside the country.
Their best hope right now lies in those outside the country, specifically the African Union. It needs to start dealing with the deteriorating situation more seriously and take steps to help protect civilians and help them seek justice for the abuses they have been suffering.
Otherwise, what’s to stop the deadly terror and lawlessness spiraling even further out of control?
