Hundreds protest in front of US Embassy in Burkina Faso over report of abuses by army

By James Tasamba

KIGALI, Rwanda (AA) - Hundreds of residents protested Friday in front of the US Embassy in Burkina Faso’s capital of Ouagadougou to express anger for Washington echoing accusations of rights abuses against civilians by the Burkinabe army, detailed in a recent Human Rights Watch report.

Protestors were mobilized by a group calling itself the National Coordination of Patriotic Citizen Monitoring Associations, days after the US and Britain urged Burkina Faso's military government on April 29 to thoroughly investigate alleged killings.

The US and UK governments are “gravely concerned by reports of massacres of civilians by Burkinabe military forces in late February,” the countries said in a statement.

Footage showed protestors carrying placards that read: “We sovereign people of Burkina Faso demand you leave our territory, focus on Gaza and Ukraine.”

Soumaïla Nana, spokesperson for the organizers of the protest, said it was “astonishing,” that the US and the UK had fallen for the “false accusations” of alleged massacre of civilians by the army.

The protests came one day after the Chargé d'affaires of the US Embassy in Burkina Faso, Eric Whitaker, was summoned by the Foreign Ministry for the statement concerning the report.

The Foreign Ministry also reportedly sent a protest note to the UK’s High Commissioner to Burkina Faso with residence in Accra, Ghana, the official Burkina Faso Information Agency reported.

Human Rights Watch accused the army of killing more than 220 civilians in February in two northern villages.

The transition government rejected the report terming it as “baseless” accusations against the army.

Last month, authorities suspended several Western and African news networks, including BBC Africa, the Voice of America and French television channel TV5 Monde after they covered stories about the report.