Since 2019, northern Burkina Faso has been embroiled in two jihadist insurgencies by the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara and Jama'at Nasr al-Islam wal-Muslimin, both predominantly-Fulani organizations that attack civilians along ethnic and religious lines.
[1] The Burkinabe government has increased efforts to combat the insurgencies by recruiting civilian militias known as the Volunteers for the Defense of the Homeland (VDP), although Burkinabe forces and VDP have been accused of killing Fulani civilians en masse.
[2] In early April 2021, jihadists killed ten VDP in Gorgadji, Séno Province.
[1] The attack was carried out on a civilian convoy guarded by Burkinabe military patrols, and took place around 25 kilometers from Gorgadji, near the borders of Niger and Mali.
[4] Six VDP militiamen, fifteen gendarmes, and fifty-nine civilians were killed in the massacre, according to the Burkinabe government.