Debunking the Human Rights Watch Report on Burkina Faso
By Penny Arcos
On April 2, 2026, Human Rights Watch released a 341-page report calling for Burkina Faso's leaders to be prosecuted for crimes against humanity. Western media, especially the BBC, immediately sprang into action to echo this call and repeat the claims as factual. But something was missing from that coverage: the response from the people who reject foreign domination, the government that is fighting for them and the transformation of the entire region under President Captain Ibrahim Traore’s visionary leadership.
“None Can Run Away”: War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity in Burkina Faso by All Sides
Anonymous Victims
The report opens with an anonymous victim’s account of armed conflict in 2024. Human Rights Watch then informs the reader that since 2016, the Al-Qaeda-linked Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims, JNIM), has waged an insurgency against the government of BurkinaFaso. The report claims that JNIM now controls major portions of the country, attacking security forces, killing civilians and looting villages, and causing starvation and illness among residents and refugees.
Systematic Abuse
Human Rights Watch claims that this is their first effort to systematically document abuses of the civilian population since March 2023. Based on interviews, photographs, videos, satellite imagery, and documents shared by various organizations and individuals, as well as social media content and official reports, Human Rights Watch has documented 1,843 civilian deaths, for which they have not presented evidence to the Burkinabè courts.
Collective Punishment
The report’s findings claim to demonstrate that the Burkinabè military systematically carries out widespread attacks on civilian populations, just like JNIM, amounting to crimes against humanity. The report claims that VDPs, the volunteer defense forces, massacre civilians from various ethnic groups simply because they lived in JNIM-controlled areas or maintained relations with the Fulani people, the country’s largest ethnic group.
According to HRW, the pastoralist livelihood of the Muslim Fulani cattle herders (i.e. “noble savages”) is deteriorating because they are underrepresented in the government and military. Government forces are incapable of distinguishing between armed combatants and civilians. They carry out mass killings when civilians are unable to provide information about the presence of armed groups. Collective punishment against civilians in retaliation for JNIM attacks is a hallmark of the counterinsurgency's approach.
Government Failure to Create Stability
The report asserts that JNIM is gaining ground, laying siege to dozens of towns and villages. Civilians are cut off from food, basic necessities and humanitarian aid, limiting their freedom of movement. The jihadists target villages where Traoré’s poorly trained VDPs are stationed, making villages more vulnerable to attack.
The government allegedly suppresses or downplays conflict-related data and information by censoring media outlets and Human Rights Watch. The government is so incapable that there is no mechanism in place to count civilian victims (except for Open Society-linked Human Rights Watch). Political instability and impunity for serious abuses leave vulnerable populations and refugees with nowhere to turn, except to the armed insurgents.
The Urgent Referral
Human Rights Watch urges the Office of the Prosecutor of the Soros-Funded International Criminal Court (ICC) to open a preliminary examination into war crimes and crimes against humanity perpetrated by all parties to the conflict in Burkina Faso since September 2022.
WHAT WESTERN MEDIA WON’T TELL YOU
The governments of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger are fully intact and fully committed to fighting for the first human right- the right to life- for their citizens. President Ibrahim Traoré has declared that the Alliance of the Sahel States is not a democracy. It is a Progressive and Populist Revolution.
The Al-Qaeda-linked jihadist insurgents that they are fighting are NATO-backed mercenaries recruited by the Obama-Biden-Clinton regime to overthrow Gaddafi in 2011. These terrorist groups have spread themselves across North Africa and West Asia since then. The current ‘military junta leaders’ of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger overthrew French puppets beginning in 2021 and are united in their vision to create a sovereign and prosperous Africa. In 2023, they finally expelled French and American occupation forces that failed to fight the terrorists.
Measured Response:
President Captain Ibrahim Traoré responded to the accusations of human rights violations and suppression of civil liberties in a recent interview.
“Those who talk about human rights are the ones who have bombed children, who drop bombs everywhere without distinction and kill children—is that human rights? That is not what we do. We fight for the lives of our people; we protect them. Our soldiers die to protect them.
“Look at Libya, it is an example close to us… Everywhere they want to install democracy in the world, it comes with blood. May God spare us from that democracy. We have our own model… We are focused on our conquest, our refoundation, and our revolution. That is the only path to development.”
The statement from the Government of Burkina Faso rejects the fabricated claims in the Human Rights Watch Report designed to “demonize Burkinabe patriots and our valiant fighting forces, to make them appear in the eyes of international opinion as predators of human rights in order to satisfy the sinister designs that imperialism harbors against our country.”
Rejection of Foreign Influence
On March 28, millions of Americans were rallying against authoritarianism under President Trump at the Soros-funded NO KINGS rallies to the tune of $3 Billion. At the same time, millions of Africans in Burkina Faso, Niger, Mali and neighboring countries, led by civic groups including National Coordination of Citizen Watch Associations (CNAVC) were rallying to defend the Sahel States against foreign interference. Their rallying cries were,“Hands off the AES! Down with Imperialism!”
Europe is facing economic and energy crises, even floating the idea of energy lockdowns, destruction of industries and military conscription to join the Ukraine Proxy War against Russia. They cut themselves off from Russian oil and natural gas. The price of oil is skyrocketing due to the US-Israel war on Iran. And France needs their undervalued uranium back from Niger to power their nuclear plants. On March 12, Christophe Gomart, a French member of the parliament pushed the EP to pass a resolution demanding the release of former Niger president Bazoum-Europe’s “main partner in the Sahel”- who is currently detained on charges of high treason.
In September 2025, The AES withdrew from the ICC, accusing the court of being used as “an instrument of neocolonial oppression in the hands of imperialism”. Citing the court’s impunity against ongoing US-Israeli war crimes and crimes against humanity and the court’s record of solely indicting African leaders, the Sahel alliance showed the court to be illegitimate.
Since 2022, Burkina Faso has suspended or banned over a dozen French media outlets for covering Human Rights Watch (HRW) reports, interviewing Al Qaeda leaders and government critics, and for publishing false information about security conditions and civilian massacres. Burkina Faso has expelled two UN Ambassadors as persona non grata for publishing unfounded allegations about the conflict and about child rights violations.
The Progressive and Popular Revolution
Since the ‘military junta’, took power, Burkina Faso has made great strides "to make the land of upright men a sovereign and prosperous nation, building endogenous and sustainable development for the well-being of all”. Burkina Faso nationalized their gold mines and refineries. The AES alliance has built a regional bank, BCID-AES, with an initial capital of 501 billion FCFA (approximately $900 million), partly backed by gold reserves. This bank funds regional infrastructure, agriculture, and manufacturing, allowing for trade using local currencies.
In February, the IMF approved $33.2 million in immediate funding for Burkina Faso and set up a new $124.3 million climate and stability program through September 2027.
The Agropastoral and Fishing Offensive, in partnership with the African Development Bank, is creating food security by distributing agricultural equipment, climate-resilient seeds, and deploying mechanized farming brigades, while drilling boreholes and dredging dams. The Faso Mebo Agency (Build My Country) is mobilizing the population to build and modernize road infrastructure and urban centers. Their flagship project is the Ouaga-Bobo autoroute, a 332 km eight-lane expressway.
The Presidential Education Initiative (IPEQ), in partnership with UNICEF, is transforming the education system through improved infrastructure, curriculum, and teacher training to equip the next generation to serve their country.
In the healthcare sector, the government has upgraded infrastructure in hospitals that were once closed due to the conflict. They set up 15 mobile clinics in rural areas and reduced medical costs for patients by 50%. They provide free medical care for mothers giving birth and for children under five. In 2025, Burkina Faso reached an historic 32% reduction in malaria cases and a 48% drop in deaths.
The government of Burkina Faso recently laid out its 35.76 trillion FCFA Five-Year Economic Plan for the benefit of the population to reduce poverty, increase GDP from manufacturing industries, improve the corruption perception index, increase life expectancy, reduce food imports and increase community involvement in government initiatives.
Finally, the constitution guarantees freedom of belief and expression, prohibiting discrimination based on religion, while regulating religious institutions to prevent extremism that leads to armed conflict.
Western Hypocrisy: Where are human rights in Western Democracies?
This tactic of smearing revolutionary leaders with wild, unsubstantiated claims is an age-old tactic of psychological warfare that Imperialists use to disillusion the masses. The goal is to discourage people from revering heroes. The oligarchy fears that mass movements will challenge their entrenched power and redistribute economic power to working families. We at CPI refer to it as Khruschevism.
As the economic system of Imperialism/Globalism run by big banks and international corporations wages war against working families around the world, the civil liberties of Americans and Europeans are being eroded. The ruling class, or the Epstein Class, plans to maintain their hegemony in the world with degrowth and depopulation, enforcing a low wage police state.
According to a Lancet report, US National Vital Statistics System (NVSS), the government system that collates all death certificates in the USA, under-reported deaths from police violence by 55.5%, failed to accurately classify and report more than 17,000 police-involved deaths and killed Black Americans 3.5 times more than white Americans. In addition, Immigration Customs Enforcement officers (ICE) recently murdered two American citizens in Minneapolis.
In the so-called Western Democracies, dissident voices are silenced. Under the pretext of the Foreign Agents Registration Act, the FBI raided the homes and offices of political dissidents like The Uhuru Three in 2022 and former weapons inspector, Scott Ritter, in 2024 for opposing the Ukraine Proxy War. NATO countries censor or debank citizens and media outlets that report opposing narratives on the pandemic, the Ukraine Proxy War and the crimes of the Zionist regime. Israel regularly murders journalists, even American journalists, with impunity, which is a violation of international law. Even Tucker Carlson is now the target of an FBI investigation for speaking to Iranian citizens.
Our roads and bridges are crumbling. Our schools and hospitals are being shut down. American veterans and working families struggle to afford a roof over their head.The national debt has reached $39 trillion, or $113,000 per person, with interest payments exceeding $1 trillion annually. The Treasury department shows that America is insolvent, carrying $47.78 trillion in total liabilities (excluding Medicare and Social Security) against $6.06 trillion in total assets.
America is at a crossroads. We must pivot our country away from the exploitative system of Globalism/Imperialism and join the rising economy in Eurasia and Africa based on human innovation, sustainable economic growth and win-win trade. The Center for Political Innovation has a four-point economic plan to rescue the country. Join us as we build an anti-monopoly coalition to demand a government of action that fights for working families.