SUMMARY

The Koglweogo was a community-based self-defense force that carried out attacks on unarmed civilians, mainly in the context of the escalating jihadist conflicts in the country, which exacerbated ethnic tensions, and fueled inter-communal clashes. Historically, the jihadists groups were associated with the Fulani civilians. Oftentimes, even unclaimed attacks on Mossi villages were assumed to have been carried out by one of the jihadi groups active in the area, and were routinely followed by Koglweogo detaining, torturing, evicting, or summary killing Fulani community members, accused of harboring or being linked to the jihadists.

In early January 2019, the Koglweogo carried out its most deadly attack on civilians to date. Accusing a Fulani community of harboring armed Islamists suspected of killing a Mossi chief and five civilians some days earlier, the Koglweogo carried out a large-scale reprisal attack that was estimated to have kill around 200 civilians, the majority being Fulani men. It was reported that in the days before the massacre, Koglweogo members searched the villages in the area to apprehend blades or weapons. After the search, the group gave an ultimatum – the Fulani civilians had 72 hours to leave their home before 1 January 2019 or the Koglweogo would return.

After the January 2019 massacre, the Koglweogo national president labeled the killings as communal clashes where Mossi villagers killed Fulani neighbors in revenge fors their chief’s death. He further emphasized that Koglweogo focused on fighting bandits rather than fighting terrorists. Yet, the Koglweogo is made up of a diverse set of groups and their aim and methods of acting differs depending on the local leadership. Some Koglweogo members in northern Burkina Faso stated a more radical view after the massacre – “we are preventing terrorist from taking over our region” – Joseph Sawadogo, a vocal member of Koglweogo in Foube village stated. Despite this clear ethnic dimension influencing the one-sided violence perpetrated by Koglweogo, a spokesman of the movement, Samir Abdoul Karim Ouedraogo, stated that the groups only targeted terrorists and denied any ethnic targeting by the Koglweogo.

The Koglweogo first became active as a one-sided actor in UCDP data in 2019, when the one-sided violence resulted in over 25 civilian deaths. The threshold was reached in early January of that year when the group conducted large-scale attacks against civilians in northern Sanmatenga and southern Soum provinces of Burkina Faso.