Burkinabe are caught in the crossfire of the conflict

In northern Ivory Coast, thousands of refugees from neighboring Burkina Faso have fled twin threats – jihadist attacks and massacres by army-backed militiamen targeting the Fulani community.

A year ago, the night gunmen showed up in Ami G's village near Titao in northern Burkina Faso, she and her six children left everything behind and fled on foot for several days.

“There was a baptism that day. “Suddenly we heard gunshots,” said the young woman, who belongs to the Mossi ethnic group, which makes up about half of the Burkinabe population.

“The jihadists killed our husbands and threatened to do the same to us the next time they visited,” she said.

“They had already come and forced us to wear long black dresses. Then they threatened us with reprisals because we spoke to soldiers. There’s a war there, they’re even murdering children,” she said, wiping a tear from her face.

After a journey of more than 600 kilometers (370 miles), Ami G. found safety in Ouangolodougou, a city in northern Ivory Coast, where she is housed in an asylum seekers camp in Niornigue.

Abidjan does not recognize those fleeing Burkina Faso as refugees.

Adama M., another newcomer to the camp, wearing a blue headscarf and yellow skirt, recalled the day armed militants ransacked her home.

“They killed my aunt with a bullet in the head and tied up and kidnapped my older brother. They told us not to cry,” she said after traveling 900 kilometers from Gorom-Gorom, a town in northern Burkina, Mali and Niger.

The non-governmental organization ACLED, which tracks conflicts, has said more than 26,000 people have been killed in Burkina Faso – soldiers, militiamen and civilians – since the conflict began in 2015.

An estimated two million people had to leave their homes.

– militia violence –

In addition to the violence of the insurgents, another type of abuse is forcing Burkinabe people to flee: the terror of the Volunteers for the Defense of the Homeland (VDP), a force made up of civilians recruited by the army to work alongside the troops who do so but do not have military status.

The militia, formed to defend villages against jihadist attacks, has grown since junta chief Captain Ibrahim Traore seized power in the West African country in a coup in 2022.

He vowed to regain control of a country plagued by armed groups linked primarily to al-Qaeda but also to the Islamic State group.

As many ethnic Fulani people, a community of mostly semi-nomadic herders, have joined the ranks of the jihadists, the community as a whole has become a target of the VDP, sources told AFP.

Abdoulaye D., 79, fled his home in Bobo-Dioulasso with his grandchildren after gunmen in military uniforms killed his two sons and stole his livestock.

“They tied up all the Fulanis and executed them with a gun,” he told AFP while holding his one-year-old granddaughter.

When asked about Captain Traore, his expression turned to anger.

“What those in power are doing is ethnic differentiation,” said Abdoulaye, who arrived in Ivory Coast four months ago.

“There is no more Burkina for me, even if I die, I don’t want my body to be sent there.”

– “Killed my whole family” –

Other stories in the community echo Abdoulaye's.

Aminata S. left the northwestern town of Nouna in January 2023 after the VDP killed her husband and parents in a massacre that Amnesty International attributed to “army proxy forces.”

“They came on a Friday and killed my entire family. There were three Fulani camps – they fired everywhere and killed 31 people,” Aminata said, adding that she did not want to hear from Traore.

“I don’t want to go back to Burkina,” she said.

An Ivorian resident of Ouangolodougou, who wished to remain anonymous, said Fulani traders who were used to locals in the town were killed by the VDP.

“They said they were supplying the jihadists,” the resident said. “They are aimed at people who commute back and forth between the two countries.”

“If you are Fulani in the Burkina bush, people say you are a jihadist. If they see you, you are dead. That is ethnic targeting,” said Moussa T., a Fulani refugee.

In the Niornigue refugee camp, 98 percent of the population is Fulani. Many Mossis – the majority ethnic group in Burkina Faso – did not stay, officially citing their desire to earn a living from agriculture.

But a woman who fled Burkina Faso and took refuge in the camp seeking asylum said there was more to it.

“Many left because they did not want to live with Fulanis,” she said.

“When they see them, they are reminded of jihadists. But for me, living together is good, these people have done nothing to me.”

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