In Burkina Faso, the Collective Against Impunity and Community Stigmatization (CISC), a civil society organization, alerts the authorities to a worrying increase in violence, in particular some perpetrated by civilians “who claim to be volunteers for the defense of the fatherland”. According to its press release, the CISC explains that it has been regularly contacted in recent times “for several cases of flagrant violations of human rights”.
Executions, kidnappings, expropriations, looting… The list of abuses mentioned by the CISC is long. These abuses partly involve terrorists, but also for several weeks, civilians considered as Homeland Defense Volunteers (VDP).
The committee evokes several events of the month of December. On Friday 30, for example, after the attack by armed men on the VDP headquarters in Nouna in the loop of Mouhoun, in the west of the country, armed civilians engaged in violent reprisals. The committee establishes an initial assessment of 21 civilian victims, including children.
Between December 15 and 22, the municipalities of Lorépeni in the south-west, Kongoussi in the center-north and Gourcy in the north experienced violence similar.
The CISC denounces “ targeted abuses against a backdrop of stigma “. He asks the authorities to carry a ” particular attention “. ” Terrorist groups surf on this type of drift to ensure their recruitment “Warns the CISC, which fears that such abuses will compromise recent security advances, such as the release of Solenzo, in the Boucle du Mouhoun.
Contacted by RFI, the staff did not wish to comment.