New JNIM Attacks in Burkina Faso Highlight Rising Civilian Risks in the North and East

Last updated: 21 September 2026

On March 12, 2026, Human Rights Watch published a report alleging that fighters from the Al Qaeda-linked Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM) committed a new series of atrocities against civilians in northeastern Burkina Faso. According to the article, at least 38 civilians were killed, 9 women were abducted, and property was burned in three separate incidents since late January. The report presents these acts as apparent war crimes and argues that the attacks reflect a wider pattern in which communities perceived to have ties to pro-government militias are being deliberately targeted.

The article is built around three incidents: the abduction of women near Sollé village on January 29, the killing of civilians during an assault on Titao on February 14, and the execution of shopkeepers in Manni on February 22. Researchers said they conducted remote interviews with 20 people, including 10 witnesses to the three attacks, as well as journalists, civil society representatives, and villagers. In the report’s framing, the violence was not random. It appears to have focused on places and people viewed by JNIM as linked to the Volunteers for the Defense of the Homeland (VDPs), local militias that support the Burkinabè military in counterinsurgency operations.

A central theme of the article is the erosion of the distinction between civilians and combatants. The report argues that JNIM fighters increasingly treat civilians as legitimate targets when they suspect them of sympathy for or family connections to the VDPs. That point is especially important in Burkina Faso’s current conflict, where local communities often live alongside militia units or have relatives serving in them. In practice, the article suggests, this has created a situation in which ordinary villagers, traders, and family members can be exposed to retaliation simply because of where they live or whom they are related to. The result is a form of collective punishment that the report says violates the most basic rules of war.

The first of the three incidents took place near Sollé, in the North region, where nine women were abducted while collecting firewood. According to the report, the women ranged in age from 29 to 51 and had left the village because fuel had become scarce. That scarcity itself is part of the story: the article says Sollé has been under JNIM siege for four years, making access to combustible material increasingly difficult and forcing residents to take risks to meet ordinary household needs. Two survivors said fighters took the women to an abandoned settlement about five kilometers away, where they were questioned about alleged ties to the VDPs and threatened with rape and death. They were released the next day, but only after repeated interrogation and warnings that they would be killed if caught again.

That episode is revealing not only because of the abduction itself, but because of the logic behind it. In the report’s account, JNIM fighters explicitly discussed whether the women might be wives of militia members and whether they had come to spy. One survivor said the women were treated as possible “war booty,” before a commander intervened. Another commander later questioned them again about the number and positions of VDP fighters in Sollé. These details suggest that the women were not targeted for anything they had done, but because the armed group saw them through the lens of local military affiliation. The article uses this case to show how siege conditions, gendered vulnerability, and militia politics are intersecting in daily life in northern Burkina Faso.

The second and most deadly attack described in the report occurred in Titao, also in the North region, on February 14. According to witnesses cited in the article, hundreds of JNIM fighters entered the city shortly before 7 a.m. on motorbikes and pickup trucks. Some attacked a military base, while others moved into the market area, fired on civilians, burned shops, demolished telecommunications infrastructure, and blocked exits from the city. The report says JNIM fighters executed at least 34 civilians in the assault. Witnesses described men being gunned down as they tried to flee, while women and children were reportedly spared.

The article provides several details that deepen the significance of the Titao attack. Residents said around 200 soldiers from Rapid Intervention Battalion 21 (BIR 21) and several hundred militia members were based in the city, which may explain why JNIM saw Titao as a strategic and symbolic target. But the report argues that the presence of military personnel did not justify firing on civilians in the market. One witness said attackers shouted in the Mooré language about prior warnings not to join the VDPs, reinforcing the claim that the violence was partly punitive. Another witness described hiding behind a wall and seeing men shot before his eyes, while a trader said he was wounded in the leg as he escaped. Researchers reviewed a witness-compiled list of 27 victims, while international media reported that 7 Ghanaian nationals also died when a truck carrying tomato traders was caught in the assault. Ghana’s foreign ministry later confirmed that detail.

The article also emphasizes the scale of destruction in Titao. Researchers geolocated a video showing a demolished telecommunications tower in the city center and reviewed satellite imagery from 11:32 a.m. the same day showing burn marks in the market area and the collapsed tower. Witnesses said that when the fighters withdrew, they saw 15 shops, 3 trucks, and 3 buses burned. Some of the destroyed shops reportedly belonged to militia members. These details matter because they show that the attack was not limited to a clash with military forces. It also disrupted communications, destroyed property, and struck the economic core of the town. A day later, state media said the military had responded with airstrikes, and later the security minister visited with medical supplies and aid, but the report’s main concern is the direct civilian toll of the initial assault.

The third incident occurred in Manni, in the East region, on February 22. Witnesses told researchers that fighters surrounded the market at about 1 p.m., trapping people inside as gunfire broke out. After the attack, residents found the bodies of four shopkeepers, each lying in front of a burned shop with bullet wounds to the head and chest. The victims were reportedly aged 47 to 61. According to witnesses cited in the article, JNIM targeted these men because their sons had joined the VDPs. The fighters also attacked the local gendarmerie post and militia positions. One witness recalled hearing a fighter over a walkie-talkie saying, in Gourmantché, that they should quickly do what they had been sent to do before withdrawing.

The article notes that JNIM later claimed responsibility for both the Titao and Manni attacks in statements issued on February 14 and February 26, although the group offered no further details. The report also places these incidents within a wider military escalation. It says that in February, JNIM carried out a coordinated offensive across the central Sahel and into Benin, with Burkina Faso as the main focus. The conflict-tracking group ACLED reported that JNIM’s offensive in Burkina Faso included more than 30 attacks and killed over 120 soldiers, forest guards, and militia members. In that context, the three incidents described in the article appear as part of a broader campaign rather than isolated local abuses.

The report also places the violence in a longer timeline. It notes that since the insurgency began in 2016, JNIM and other Islamist armed groups have repeatedly attacked civilians and displaced tens of thousands of people. At the same time, it acknowledges that the Burkinabè military junta, which took power in 2022, has also been implicated in abuses against civilians during counterinsurgency operations. This wider context is important because it shows that Burkina Faso’s conflict is marked by violence from multiple sides. Still, the article is specifically focused on JNIM’s latest atrocities and on the way the armed group is allegedly using perceived ties to militias as justification for attacks on noncombatants.

From a legal perspective, the article is explicit. It says all parties to the conflict are bound by international humanitarian law, including Common Article 3 to the Geneva Conventions and customary laws of war. Those rules prohibit summary executions, attacks on civilians and civilian property, rape and other sexual violence, and looting. The report argues that the killings, abductions, threats of rape, and destruction of civilian property documented in the three incidents are serious violations and, when committed intentionally, amount to war crimes. It adds that Burkinabè authorities have an obligation to investigate the crimes impartially and prosecute those responsible, while also seeking appropriate regional and international support.

Conclusion

The article presents the latest JNIM attacks in Burkina Faso as a stark sign that civilians remain at the center of the country’s deteriorating conflict. The abductions near Sollé, the killings in Titao, and the executions in Manni all suggest that communities viewed as close to militia structures are facing growing risks of collective punishment, abduction, and death.

More broadly, the report shows how the war in Burkina Faso continues to blur the line between battlefield targets and civilian life. In that context, the incidents are drawing attention not only because of the immediate death toll, but because they point to a wider pattern in which local markets, rural women, traders, and families are increasingly pulled directly into the logic of the conflict.