Burkina Faso - November 2023
Military government uses conscription to target political opponents
Burkina Faso remains engaged in an intense internal war with Islamist groups. Part of the military government’s response has been to use an emergency decree that gives the government the power to requisition equipment and conscript people into military service. However, in November, trade union leaders and other civil society activists asserted that the government was using conscription to particularly target them, as well as journalists and members of opposition parties. Human rights organizations described the conscription notices as an abuse of emergency legislation to suppress dissent.
Sources: Faso7, Jeune Afrique, Human Rights Watch
Rule of Law
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As many as one hundred civilians massacred in attack on northern village
In one of the worst single incidents of violence targeted against civilians in Burkina Faso this year, as many as one hundred people were killed in an attack on Zaongo, a village in north-central Burkina Faso. Reports from media organizations and statements from the United Nations, European Union, and United States did not identify the group responsible for the massacre.
Sources: Jeune Afrique, Cable News Network, International Crisis Group
Rule of Law
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