• Authorities in Burkina Faso have kicked out UN diplomat saying they were not briefed on the outcomes of “Children and Armed Conflict in Burkana Faso” report.
  • UN’s regional coordinator Carol Flore-Smereczniak declared “persona non grata” for “compiling data without objective sources, and conveying serious and false information.”
  • UN report details the killing and maiming of a total of 1,386 children, attacks on schools, rape, and recruitment of child soldiers.

Burkina Faso has declared United Nations regional coordinator Carol Flore-Smereczniak persona non grata citing an April 2025 UN report that accused the country’s security forces of grave violations against children, including killings, rape, recruitment into armed conflict, and attacks on schools.

On Monday, authorities in the West African country said they were not involved in the development of the UN report nor briefed on the outcomes of the study titled, “Children and Armed Conflict in Burkana Faso.” The report assessed the situation of children and armed conflict in Burkina Faso, covering the period from 1 July 2022 to 30 June 2024.

According to the military-led government, UN made a baseless assertion while including outright falsehoods that ignored undergoing investigations and proceedings in various courts of law.

UN resident coordinator in Burkina Faso Carol Flore-Smereczniak co-chaired the team which authored the report which indicted members of the country’s security forces.

On Monday, the government said it is “astonished” by Carol Flore-Smereczniak work and the conduct of particular UN agencies in Burkina Faso for attempting to redefine the troubles and pain people in that West African country have endured for decades.

Burkina Faso’s communique clarified that Carol Flore-Smereczniak role in co-chairing the drafting of a report “compiling data without objective sources, without evidence or justification, and conveying serious and false information,” saw her declared “persona non grata.”

What UN report alleges on Burkina Faso’s security forces

On or around April, the UN published the first draft of the “Children and armed conflict in Burkina Faso”, report, detailing a catalogue of grave allegations against the country’s security forces.

“The last quarter of 2023 saw a sharp increase in the number of grave violations against children, notably child casualties. A total of 560 grave violations, representing 23 per cent of violations verified during the reporting period, were verified as having occurred during these three months. This rise can be explained by the increased intensity of attacks by armed groups and military operations, indiscriminate attacks affecting civilians and the enhanced capacity of the country task force to monitor and verify grave violations,” the report states in part.

According to the UN, the team interviewed up to 2,483 cases of grave violations meted on 2,255 children, a majority boys, including 223 who were reportedly victims of multiple violations in the country.

The UN said children in Burkina Faso’s regions of Sahel (837) and Centre-Nord (543) suffered the most in the hands of security forces, closely follwed by their peers in Est (340), Nord (286), Boucle du Mouhoun (227), Centre-Est (133), Hauts-Bassins (81), Cascades (20), Centre-Ouest (14), Centre-Sud (1) and Sud-Ouest (1) areas.

“The killing and maiming of children was the most prominent grave violation, followed by abduction, and recruitment and use,” the report states in part, adding: “Of particular concern was an increase in the number of verified attacks on schools within the reporting period. Rape and other forms of sexual violence remained underreported.”

Additionally, children in the affected zones suffered denial of humanitarian access, and investigations show the young ones were often being forces to associate with armed groups, raising fundamental issues related to child protection.

In most cases, children were used in combat (219 cases) and were vic tims of other violations, including killing (122 cases). Assessing the full extent of recruitment and use proved challenging due to difficulties in engaging with armed groups and identifying recruited children, as they often live within the community and do not wear uniforms, says the UN.

Carol Flore-Smereczniak states that Burkina Faso suffered the highest number of recruitment of child fighters in armed groups during the last quarter of 2023. During the period under focus, a total of 128 of violations on children representing half of the total recorded were carried out during this period alone.

“This fact can be attributed to both the enhanced capacity of the country task force to verify recruitment cases and child recruitment propaganda tactics employed by armed groups,” such as promises of financial gain, abductions, and persuasion by parents or relatives.

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Killing and maiming of children

The UN report details the killing and maiming of a total of 1,386 children, including 794 boys, 415 girls, and 177 whose sex was unidentified in Burkina Faso. “Some as young as 8 months, were killed (920) or maimed (466).”

What’s more, “Violations were attributed to Jama’a Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin (JNIM) (501), transitional government and pro-transitional government forces (464) (including the Defence and Security Forces and Volontaires pour la défense de la patrie (462) and dozo traditional hunters (2)) and ISGS (159).”

In particular, the report blames the country’s Defence and Security Forces for the death of 1,200 people, mostly children who were killed or maimed during attacks against civilians and military operations against armed groups, with children caught in hostilities, rocket attacks, air strikes, crossfire and shelling.

“The verified high numbers attributed to the Defence and Security Forces are correlated with their operations in response to armed groups, including frequent air strikes,” the UN explained.

It added, “Explosive devices were the other leading cause of child casualties. For instance, on 17 January 2024, three girls aged 13 and 14 searching for firewood stepped on a mine, west of the town of Arbinda in the Sahel Region. The girls were injured and evacuated to Ouagadougou for treatment.”