Burkinabe President condemns suspicious deaths of 12 people in custody

President f Burkina Faso Roch Marc Christian Kaboré has condemned the

suspicious death of 12 people in police custody in east of the country mid-May.

As investigations into the suspicious death of the 12 in a Tanwalbougou police station continues, the Burkina president said the incident was ‘‘unacceptable’‘. He promised prompt decisions at the end of the investigations.

According to relatives and NGOs, the 12 people, who were detained on suspicion of terrorism, were in fact civilians caught in a swoop and were summarily executed by firing.

Activists have denounced the “extrajudicial executions”, noting that the 12 people killed were all ethnic Fulani. President Kaboré urged people to avoid stigmatization.

Burkina Faso’s security forces and self-defence groups, have in the last 3 years been regularly accused of blunders or abuses, particularly against Fulani populations.

Some Fulanis have joined jihadist groups that have killed nearly 900 people since 2015 in Burkina Faso. It is also common to hear Burkinabes equating jihadists with Fulanis.