According to the UN and the government, a massacre in northeast Burkina Faso earlier this month killed more than 130 individuals, the majority of them were minors aged 12 to 14.
On the evening of June 4, armed gunmen raided the village of Solhan, shooting villagers and setting fire to their homes.
In an area beset by extremists affiliated to Islamic State and al Qaeda, it was the biggest strike in years.
Government spokesman, Ousseni Tamboura, said that majority of the attackers were children, prompting condemnation from the U.N.
“We strongly condemn the recruitment of children and adolescents by non-state armed groups.
“This is a grave violation of their fundamental rights,’’ the U.N. children’s agency UNICEF said in a statement on Thursday.
Despite the presence of UN peacekeepers and foreign armed forces, Islamist attacks continue unabated in the Sahel region of West Africa, particularly Mali and Niger.
Child soldiers have been deployed by terrorist organizations in Burkina Faso’s north, where jihadists control huge territories, according to local officials, but this month’s attack was by far the most high-profile, case.
It was a new low for the poor West African nation, which has seen a significant increase in attacks on civilians and military since 2018.
Hundreds of people have died, and over 1.2 million people have been displaced.
According to UNICEF, many of them have been forced to live in improvised settlements strewn across the parched north, east, and center of the country.
Over 300,000 children have been impacted by the closure of over 2,200 schools (almost one out of every ten).
