Sahel states launch new counterinsurgency force
At an air base in Bamako, Mali's military ruler Gen. Assimi Goita presided over a ceremony Dec. 21 marking the launch of a unified force for three Sahel states to fight the rising tide of jihadist insurgency across their borders. The move comes after the three countries—Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, all now ruled by military juntas—collectively withdrew from the West African regional bloc ECOWAS to form their own Alliance of Sahel States (AES). Burkina Faso's ruler, Gen. Daouda Traoré, was named to head the force, which will maintain a command base in Niamey, Niger's capital.
This new breakaway bloc has deepening ties to Russia, which maintains paramilitary forces in the AES countries under the rubric of the Wagner Group or Africa Corps. These forces are increasingly accused of atrocities, with Malian refugees in Mauritania reporting rapes, beheadings and mutilation of civilians at the hands of Russian mercenaries. The Africa Report online publication recently said it had "infiltrated" the Wagner-linked Telegram channel, finding 322 videos and 647 photographs of atrocities, including severed heads and gouged-out eyes, and posts "laced with racism." (AfricaNews, BBC News, LAT, The Telegraph)
Alarmingly, these atrocity reports come just as the AES has collectively withdrawn from the International Criminal Court.
War crimes seen in Burkina Faso
Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a report April 1 finding that Burkina Faso’s military forces have killed around 1,800 civilians and forcibly displaced others since 2023.
The report documents widespread abuses by all sides to the conflict, warning that the scale and systematic nature of the violence may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity. It calls on Burkina Faso's government to investigate and prosecute "armed groups responsible for war crimes," to "coordinate with the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights,' and to "[a]dopt robust measures…to counter discrimination, stigmatization, and violence against the Fulani community."
According to HRW, government security forces and pro-government militias, including the Volunteers for the Defense of the Homeland (VDP), were responsible for mass killings of civilians accused of supporting Islamist armed groups. At the same time, Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wa al-Muslimeen (JNIM), an Al Qaeda-linked group, carried out large-scale attacks on villages, killings, and forced displacement of populations perceived to be aligned with the state. (Jurist)