Since 2015, northern Burkina Faso has been embroiled in a jihadist insurgency against the al-Qaeda aligned Jama'at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin coalition and the homegrown Ansarul Islam.

[1] In August 2019, JNIM and the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS) launched an offensive in Liptako-Gourma, the tri-border area between Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger.

Residents speaking to Human Rights Watch stated that they began seeing clusters of bodies on the outskirts of the city, mainly on the highways in and out of the town.

[2] They also stated that the bodies were not the results of clashes between jihadists and Burkinabe forces, as "word travels fast, and we'd know if that were the case.

The victims had been spotted at various places, including a cattle market, working as a security guard before being arrested by VDP, and other areas of the city.

Another group of five bodies was spotted near the village of Mentao on the outskirts of Djibo, all of whom wearing Fulani clothing.

A relative of one of the victims stated that his nephew and eight others were arrested at the town's market by Burkinabe forces, and were driven to the Djibo Dam, where gunshots were heard.

[2] On May 14, the bodies of seventeen men were discovered in Djibo's Mbodowol neighborhood after having been arrested by Burkinabe forces the day prior.

Eighteen men were buried in early April, and forty other bodies were discovered in and around the Djibo Airport in March and May.

[5] Burkinabe Defence Minister Moumouna Cherif Sy stated that it was hard for security forces to distinguish between jihadists and civilians.

[7] Human Rights Watch described the city of Djibo as a "killing field" due to the prevalence of the massacres.