Amnesty International (AI) has called on the authorities in Burkina Faso to conduct an impartial investigation into the killing of 136 people, including women and infants, in Karma village.

Development Diaries reports that the attack, which was carried out by people wearing the uniforms of the Burkinabe armed forces, is one of the worst on civilians as the country battles armed militants linked to al Qaida and the Islamic State.

The soldiers reportedly rounded the victims, collected their identity documents, and then shot them at point-blank range.

‘The Karma massacre is yet another example of violence against civilians in the conflict in Burkina Faso’, AI’s Director for West and Central Africa, Samira Daoud, said in a statement.

‘After the killings in Nouna on 30 December and the attack on the displaced persons’ site at La Ferme in Ouahigouya on 13 February, the army has once again been found responsible for these attacks and killings, which deliberately targeted civilians.

‘Such attacks on civilians must be halted immediately’.

It is understood that a prosecutor has launched a probe into the massacre that took place in the northern village of Karma and surrounding areas.

Under international humanitarian law, all parties to an armed conflict must systematically distinguish between civilians and combatants and are prohibited from carrying out attacks on the civilian population and extrajudicial executions.

Burkina Faso is one of several West African countries struggling with a violent Islamist insurgency that has spread from neighbouring Mali over the past decade.

Photo source: Spc. Dracorius White