DAKAR (Reuters) – Burkina Faso’s army has condemned videos shared on social media this week showing people presenting themselves as soldiers and army auxiliaries mutilating corpses.
The trend started last week with a video showing a man in Malian military uniform carving up the stomach of a dead body with a machete. Mali’s army described it as a “rare atrocity” that did not align with its military values.
Similar videos circulated this week of men in neighbouring Burkina Faso showing off severed dead body parts and burning them on an open fire, according to comments and media reports on the footage. Reuters has not verified any of the videos.
“In recent days, unbearable images of rare cruelty have been posted on social networks,” Burkina Faso’s armed forces said in a statement on Wednesday.
It condemned the “macabre acts” as the antithesis of its military values and, like Mali’s army, said it would verify the videos and identify the people in them.
Mali and Burkina Faso’s armies are fighting a jihadist insurgency that has spread across the Sahel region south of the Sahara since it first took root in Mali 12 years ago.
Rights groups and the United Nations have repeatedly accused Malian and Burkinabe troops of serious abuses committed against civilians suspected of collaborating with the jihadists. Both armies have denied wrongdoing.
“In recent days, unbearable images of rare cruelty have been posted on social networks,” Burkina Faso’s armed forces said.
Burkina Faso and Mali have been under military rule since 2020 and 2022 respectively.
The failure of previous governments to protect civilians against the Sahel insurgency contributed to two coups in Mali, two in Burkina Faso and one in neighbouring Niger since 2020.
But the juntas have so far failed on their promises to quash the insurgency and end violence that has caused thousands of deaths and displaced millions more.
(Reporting by Dakar bureau, Writing by Sofia Christensen, Editing by Angus MacSwan)
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