Armed groups committed human rights abuses, including killings and abductions, in the context of the armed conflict. Security forces also perpetrated extrajudicial executions and torture. Impunity remained pervasive. The right to education was hindered. Freedoms of expression and assembly were...

Burkina Faso’s authorities must take immediate steps to end attacks on civilians in the context of the armed conflict and conduct an impartial and independent investigation into the crimes that occurred on 20 April in Karma, which could amount to war crimes. On 20 April, in Karma, a village 15 km...

According to witnesses interviewed by Amnesty International, auxiliary forces to the government of Burkina Faso killed dozens of civilians in Nouna, in Kossi province, on 30 December 2022 and more than 80 corpses were buried. The targeted and unjustified killings, of mainly ethnically Fulani...

Increasing numbers of children are being killed and targeted for recruitment by armed groups in conflicts raging at Niger’s borders with Mali and Burkina Faso, Amnesty International said in a new report published today. The 57-page report, ‘I Have Nothing Left Except Myself’: The Worsening Impact...

Amnesty International’s arms experts have identified Serbian-manufactured weapons in videos posted by armed groups operating in the Sahel, including an Islamic State affiliate which has claimed responsibility for hundreds of civilian deaths. The new rifles, some the latest available models, match...

Amnesty International today announces the name of four awardees of a bursary in honour of its late employee Gaëtan Mootoo, Researcher for West Africa, who had been with the organization for more than 30 years. This announcement is made public as the organization remembers him with great fondness on...

For a second consecutive year, Amnesty International has documented how African governments are grossly undermining regional human rights bodies by failing to comply with their decisions, ignoring their urgent appeals, neglecting to report to them on national human rights situations and starving...

As confirmed COVID-19 cases on the African continent reach one million, African leaders must take concrete measures to improve and strengthen testing and treatment capacity, and the international community should support countries to tackle the pandemic, Amnesty International said today. South...

Nearly 200 people including IDPs unlawfully killed or forcibly disappeared between February and March 2020. Arbitrary arrests sweep up dozens at a time, some aren’t seen again Impunity and the desire to produce “victories” fuel violations in Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso Soldiers rampaging through...

Survivors share horrific accounts of 8 March attacks which left at least 43 dead The ‘Koglweogo’, a self-defence armed group, accused of raiding three villages, killing civilians Massacre occurs in the context of a new law, authorizing the recruitment of “volunteers” for military purposes Key...

With inequality, injustice and hate speech seemingly ever more prevalent across the globe, you’d be forgiven for thinking 2019 has been a bad year for human rights. Yet, we have also seen some significant wins. Activists the world over have been galvanised to stand up and fight for our human rights...

The use of the death penalty – the world’s ultimate cruel punishment – has decreased in sub-Saharan Africa according to the Death Sentences and Executions 2018 report by Amnesty International. This is good news for sub-Saharan Africa and an indication that the region continues to turn against the...

Reacting to the news that Burkina Faso’s parliament has adopted a new penal code that effectively abolishes the death penalty, Yves Traoré, Director of Amnesty International Burkina Faso said: “The adoption of a new penal code effectively strikes off the death penalty from the list of possible...