Nondin and Soro massacres

On 25 February 2024, soldiers of the Burkina Faso Armed Forces killed approximately 223 civilians, including 56 children, in the villages of Nondin and Soro in Yatenga Province, northern Burkina Faso. Human Rights Watch (HRW) described the killings as one of the worst instances of abuse by the Burkinabe army since the country's armed conflict with Islamist insurgents began in 2015.

The massacres occurred against the backdrop of an ongoing Islamist insurgency in Burkina Faso, part of a wider Sahel conflict that has killed around 20,000 people and displaced 2 million since 2015. Following two military coups in 2022, Ibrahim Traoré took power pledging to defeat the insurgency, but violence escalated and over a third of the country's territory fell under Islamist control. On 24 and 25 February 2024, coordinated Islamist attacks targeted military installations and places of worship across the country, killing 29 people in attacks on a mosque and a Catholic church. On the morning of 25 February, Islamist fighters attacked a military base in Ouahigouya before fleeing toward Thiou district, prompting a pursuit by the Rapid Intervention Battalion.

According to accounts gathered by HRW, armed Islamists passed through Nondin shortly before the massacre. Between 8:30 and 9:00 a.m., a military convoy of over 100 soldiers with pickup trucks, motorbikes, and armored vehicles arrived in Nondin. Soldiers went door-to-door checking identity cards, ordered residents from their homes, grouped them, and then opened fire on the groups and those attempting to flee. A 34-year-old woman who was shot said soldiers accused residents of collaborating with jihadists. Forty-four people, including 20 children, were killed in Nondin. About an hour later, a similar pattern occurred in Soro, roughly 5 kilometres away, where soldiers separated residents by gender before shooting them; 179 people died in Soro, including 36 children and four pregnant women.

Survivors buried most victims in mass graves — eight in Soro and three in Nondin — and compiled name lists later obtained by HRW. A day after the massacres, victims' families reported the attacks to the gendarmerie in Ouahigouya, prompting a high court prosecutor to announce an investigation.

HRW, based on interviews with 23 witnesses and other sources, and verified photo and video evidence, concluded that the Burkina Faso Armed Forces were responsible, and its executive director characterized the killings as possible crimes against humanity, calling for a UN-backed probe. Burkinabe officials rejected the accusations as baseless and part of a media campaign, opened their own investigation, and suspended multiple domestic and international news outlets covering the event, including BBC and Voice of America. The United States and United Kingdom expressed grave concern and called for an investigation, prompting protests outside the US embassy in Ouagadougou in support of the Burkinabe armed forces.