Jihadi abuses increasing in Burkina Faso, says rights group

By SAM MEDNICK
Associated Press

OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso (AP) — The international rights group Human Rights Watch says abuses carried out by jihadis in Burkina Faso are multiplying at alarming rates. The group says in the report released Monday that as violence intensifies in the war-weakened nation, jihadis are carrying out rapes, extrajudicial killings and using child soldiers, some as young as 12, at increasing levels. Civilians are also threatened by unlawful killings and enforced disappearances by government security forces and militias engaged in counterterrorism operations. Corinne Dufka, West Africa director for Human Rights Watch, warns that “the pace of attacks and consequent degradation in Burkina Faso is as dramatic as it is worrying,” and that the escalating violence threatens neighboring countries as well.