The Burkinabè government strongly condemned and warned on Thursday August 18 against calls
for "murder
" and "
ethnic cleansing
" recently relayed on social networks, targeting the country's Fulani minority.
These calls, in the form of audio recordings posted mainly on the WhatsApp network, invited the "
indigenous
" populations to attack the Fulani in their region through murder and abuse, particularly in the south-west of the border country of the Ivory Coast.
"Hate speech"
"
These are remarks of extreme gravity which are only equaled by the excesses of the radio Mille Collines which led to the Rwandan genocide (in 1994), one of the worst tragedies of humanity and of which we must know lessons
,” writes Lionel Bilgo, spokesperson for the Burkinabè government, in a declaration adopted by the Council of Ministers.
“
It is about direct and active calls for murder, mass killings, ethnic cleansing and sedition: the tone and the words used send shivers down the spine and testify to the gravity of the situation
”, he adds.
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According to Lionel Bilgo, "
this is indeed hate speech, subversive, dangerous and unacceptable in a rich and diversified country like Burkina Faso
", which requires "
to act resolutely and firmly before the irreparable happens
".
They call for "
unreserved and unambiguous condemnation
".
Fulanis having joined jihadist groups that have bloodied Burkina Faso for seven years, the amalgam "
Fulani equals terrorist
" is regularly established, which fuels tensions between communities.
Risk of “civil war”
In a column published on Tuesday, Alpha Barry, former Minister of Foreign Affairs of President Roch Marc Christian Kaboré, overthrown in January by a military putsch, alerted him to "
the risk of a real civil war
", after the broadcast of these recordings.
To avoid this, he called on politicians, religious, intellectuals, customary chiefs and other leaders to "
go into the field, meet the people, carry out strong actions to advocate cohesion and living together which are the cement of our nation
”.
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On January 1, 2019, unidentified armed individuals attacked the village of Yirgou in northern Burkina, killing six people, including the village chief.
This attack was immediately followed by retaliatory actions targeting the Fulani who had left 50 dead, according to the official report, at least 146, according to civil society organizations.
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