The Burkina Faso government and the United Nations said the attack, which killed more than 130 people earlier this month, was carried out mainly by minors aged 12 to 14, reported Reuters.
On June 4, some armed assailants raided the Solhan village, opened fire on residents, and burned their homes. It was the worst attack in years in the area controlled by jihadists linked to Islamic State and al Qaeda.
According to Burkina Faso’s government spokesman Ousseni Tamboura, the majority of the attackers were children, prompting condemnation from the UN.
“We strongly condemn the recruitment of children and adolescents by non-state armed groups. This is a grave violation of their fundamental rights,” the UN children’s agency UNICEF said in a statement on Thursday.
Despite the presence of UN peacekeeping forces and international armed forces, attacks by Islamist extremists have increased across West Africa’s Sahel region since the start of the year, particularly in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger.
Local officials in Burkina Faso’s north, which is largely controlled by jihadists, large areas, said Islamist groups have been using child soldiers for attacks over the past year, but this month’s attack was by far the highest-profile case.
It represented a new low for the impoverished West African country that since 2018 has seen a sharp rise in attacks on civilians and soldiers.
More than 1.14 million people have been displaced due to violence in Burkina Faso in just over two years, while the poor, arid country is hosting some 20,000 refugees from neighboring Mali.
The latest attack takes the total number of people killed by armed Islamists in the Sahel region to over 500 since January, according to Human Rights Watch’s West Africa director, Corinne Dufka. Earlier this year, militants brutally killed 137 people in coordinated attacks on villages in southwestern Niger.
