The top resident UN official was called “persona non grata” by the Burkinabe junta on Monday in response to a UN report that found that armed groups were recruiting children to fight in the nation’s jihadist conflict.
As the Sahel nation struggles with a widespread jihadist insurgency, the Burkinabe junta has increased pressure on international organizations and humanitarian organizations since a coup.
UN resident humanitarian coordinator Carol Flore-Smereczniak must leave, according to a statement from the military government, because of her “responsibility” in creating the March report, which it claimed contained “baseless” allegations that Burkinabe’s army and defense forces were also violating children’s human rights.
The report, which is titled “Children and armed conflict in Burkinabe,” identified violations against minors, including “the recruitment and use of children, the killing and maiming of children, rape and other forms of sexual violence against children, attacks on schools, hospitals, and protected persons in relation to schools, hospitals, and the abduction of children, and the denial of humanitarian access.
The Al-Qaeda-linked Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims, or JNIM, was most frequently involved in child recruitment, with the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS) group being one of the culprits.
However, the report also discovered that one-fifth of the grave crimes registered by UN investigators were committed by the defense and security forces, as well as its civilian affiliates, the Volunteers for the Defense of the Nation.
‘Falsehoods’
The government continued, “This report, which resembles a compilation of baseless assertions and falsehoods, contains no appendices with copies of investigation reports or court rulings to back up the alleged cases of violations against children attributed to the brave Burkinabe fighters.”
The investigation revealed that Volunteers for the Defense of the Nation members were responsible for the kidnapping of 23 children and four of the 20 rape counts that they successfully verified.
In July of this year, Mauritius native Flore-Smereczniak was appointed.
In December 2022, the junta declared one of her predecessors, Italian official Barbara Manzi, a similarly “persona non grata.”
Read more about Junta-Run Burkinabe to remove the electoral commission.
For the past ten years, Islamist fighters have attacked Burkinabe.
Although the junta has vowed to halt the unrest since launching a coup in September 2022, its military leaders have so far failed to do so.
Regularly accused of abusing civilians, the Burkinabe army and its civilian affiliates are they.
More than 26 000 people have died in Burkinabe as a result of the jihadist insurgency, including civilians and soldiers, since it started more than ten years ago.
In the last three years, more than half of those deaths occurred.
Source: Channels TV
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