The attention of the Sahel Solidarity Campaign Network (SaS-CaN) has been drawn to a report written and published on Thursday 2nd April, 2026 by the US-based Human Rights Watch. Titled: ‘NONE CAN RUN AWAY’, the Organisation reported that at least 1,800 civilians have been killed in Burkina Faso in the last three years in acts amounting to “war crimes and crimes against humanity”.  

The report further stated that about 1,837 civilians, including dozens of children, were killed in 57 incidents between January 2023 and August 2025. It indicted the Burkinabe Military and its so-called allied militias of killing about 1,255, with the terrorist group responsible for the deaths of the others.

We find ourselves, yet again, confronted with the recycling of a discredited narrative, peddled by the same source that unabashedly weaponized human rights as tools of oppression and geopolitical manipulation for years now. As has been the case, in its reporting on the situation in Burkina Faso since the inception of President Ibrahim Traore in 2023, the US-based Human Rights Watch previous reports is hell-bent on engaging in smear attacks and malicious campaigns against the competent authorities in Ouagadougou. SaS-CaN categorically rejects the report in its entirety—its fallacious premises, it’s absurd language, and the blatantly politicized agenda it embodies.

The Sahel Solidarity Campaign Network (SaS-CaN) condemns terrorism in all circumstances and including in situations of conflict and advocates zero-tolerance policy towards the menace. This latest report, which is well packed in the language of concern, has never been about genuinely promoting or defending human rights either in Burkina Faso or in the Sahel region. It is, unequivocally, a cunning tactic that is aimed at undermining a sovereign progressive nation that refuses to be used as a tool of oppression.

It’s unfortunate that this is not an isolated report and has been the case since the Sahel revolution in 2022. The report is replete with hate, old malice, grudges and double standards. The government of Burkina Faso led by President Ibrahim Traore, and of course the Alliance of Sahel States (AES) had already expressed their concerns and questioned the impartiality and professionalism of the same pen holders at the Human Rights Watch bureaucracy.

This anti-African posture, driven by a neo-colonial agenda sets a dangerous precedent. It is precisely this kind of sabotage and hatred that dangerously threatens peace and stability in Africa. SaS-CaN urges the international public and the progressive media to unite against this grotesque instrument of confusion, disinformation and propaganda.

SaS-CaN also finds it curious that Human Rights Watch cannot explain in its latest report that the situation in Burkina Faso is between foreign terrorist outfits created, trained, funded and supported by NATO who have attacked and are unleashing terror on poor Africans, and the Governments of Mali, Burkina Faso and the Republic of Niger are responding in defending their people against those terrorist attacks. Instead, the report forcefully tried to snuff the global community with a report based on misinformation, disinformation, flaws and misplaced projections. SaS-CaN categorically rejects and advocates against any engagement with mechanisms that operate outside the framework of impartiality, mutual respect, and race equality.

SaS-CaN has previously criticised the Human Rights Watch for releasing a report that was deeply biased, misleading, incorrect, misplaced and which is millions of miles away from the truth. For God’s sake how the Human Rights Watch could want the public to receive its report when the entire motive of its agenda in the Sahel is to weaponise human rights as a means to demonise authentic African leaders in the Sahel region of the continent.

The Human Rights Watch also alleged in its latest report that the Burkinabe Military is engaged in a campaign of ethnic cleansing that targets Fulani African people in the Sahel.  SaS-CaN believes strongly that a presumptive approach that has already appropriated guilt to the government of Burkina Faso’s prosecution of the war against terrorism proffers no solution to returning peace and stability to the Sahel region. It is even needless to mention here the origin of the ongoing terrorism war in the Sahel. Suffice it to say that, in the AES, you touch one, you touch all!

Members-states of the AES owed it a duty and responsibility to defend their sovereignty, national independence and homeland dignity against any foreign aggression or threat. So, Burkina Faso’s military operations against terrorist attacks are carried out with the goal of restoring peace and kicking out all terrorist outfits and their agents out of the Sahel region.

The activities of the AES military are carried out with utmost precaution to avoid collateral damage on civilians and civilian institutions. If at all there is any misconduct by anybody, corrective measures are taken. The competent authorities in Bamako, Ouagadougou and Niamey have the far-sight and wisdom as well experience to understand what this politics of human rights is all about.

While the foreign terrorist groups are hell-bent on unleashing genocide on poor Africans, members-states of the AES remain firmly committed to defending and promoting human rights and sovereignty of their people against terrorism. The recent successes in the frontlines against the terrorist groups are never reported by any Western institution.

The AES as a regional body comprising Mali, Burkina Faso and the Republic of Niger has clear directions and takes pride in milestones in its peace and human rights advocacy. It is clear that while others define human rights in the context of its violations, the AES on the contrary looks at its concept in the context of peace, good governance, security, stability, freedom, sustainable development, dignity and sovereignty. The governments of Mali, Burkina Faso and the Republic of Niger are serious and concerned with human rights protection, and as such have created the conditions needed to combat against the growing menace of terrorism in Africa.

Ensuring the protection and security of Africans in the Sahel region remains of utmost importance to the three member-states of the AES. Let no one mistaken here, the governments of Mali, Burkina Faso and the Republic of Niger will not compromise sovereignty and dignity of their people, but will go further to accelerate current efforts to comprehensively respond to the humanitarian situation with the same goal of guaranteeing the protection and security of their citizens.

It is regrettable that the Human Rights Watch continues to demonise the AES member-states in its assessment of the situation in the Sahel region. As for the tools used to prepare the report, the Human Rights Watch relies on unverified and baseless information, which it uses to sell to the public as facts on the ground. SaS-CaN urges the US based organisation to stay honest and take a long, hard look in the mirror before meddling in the AES internal matters.

Fulanis are Africans and we all dwell together. It is interesting to note that the Human Rights Watch choses to report on the AES region where again it remains silent on the development process taking place. In so doing, the Human Rights Watch has discredited its respect and misused the international public to market its hatreds, malice and grudges against the Sahel region.

Speaking to people outside the targeted country or countries through telephone makes the report partial, baseless, biased, and erroneous. The report also fails to disclose those supporting the terrorist in the Sahel. These are not mistakes, but a deliberate action by Human Rights Watch to promote a neo-colonial agenda in the Sahel region.

The report is also about maintaining foreign hegemony and the human rights stick is the strategy of choice to denigrate and punish those nations that resist this hegemonic plan.  Being so partial, biased, subjective and race-filled, Human Rights Watch risks losing its credibility and acceptance in Africa.  

SaS-CaN would like to underline the importance it attaches to the role expected of Human Rights Watch in promoting and defending human rights in Africa. While SaS-CaN calls on Human Rights Watch to rededicate itself to its mandated mission, we are hopeful that the US-based Organisation will seek the support of the AES to help it fulfil its mandate and to remain careful of not being used as a platform to demonise the AES leaders.

Signed by:

Alimamy  Bakarr  Sankoh
President and Co-founder
The Sahel Solidarity Campaign Network
SaS-CaN