When Lieutenant Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba seized power in Burkina Faso in January of 2022, he promised to combat the growing insurgency that has plagued the nation for nearly a decade. Less than eight months later, Captain Ibrahim Traoré led a coup to oust Damiba, accusing his government of failing to deliver on its promises to stem the violence.
Traoré’s rise to power reflected growing frustration within the military and among civilians. His youth and first-hand experience battling Islamic extremist groups in neighboring Mali gave hope to some that order, if not democracy, would be restored to the country.
Two years later, that hope has been dashed and the conflict in Burkina Faso has continued to spiral further out of control. French troops were expelled in 2023 and in their stead came Russian soldiers and Wagner Group mercenaries. Earlier this month, the military junta dissolved the national government and replaced the prime minister for seemingly no reason.
As his military government tightens its grip on the Burkinabé state, Traoré’s reliance on civilian militias, namely the Volunteers for the Defense of the Homeland (VDP), has fueled ethnic tensions and led to widespread human rights abuses, according to the research group Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (ACLED).
Corroborated by civilian interviews conducted by the New York Times, ACLED reports indicate a startling rise in targeted violence towards Fulani ethnic minorities at the hands of civilian militias in a country that once proudly touted its diversity and inter-ethnic tolerance.
The VDP is an auxiliary force established by Burkina Faso’s government in 2020 to support the country’s military against armed insurgents. As the name suggests, the VDP consists largely of civilian volunteers and faces significant challenges due to inadequate training.
Moreover, its recruitment policies exclude pastoral minorities like the Fulani, reinforcing ethnic divisions as majority-Muslim Fulani communities are often unfairly associated with terrorist groups. ACLED reports myriad cases of “extortion, forced disappearances, abductions, [and] summary executions” targeting Fulani villages and individuals.
These developments closely mirror those of Sudan and its Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which also arose to address security issues, but have instead deepened divides and fueled ethnic violence.
The RSF originated in Sudan as a state-sanctioned paramilitary group formed during the early 2000s to support the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) in addressing insurgent threats, particularly in the Darfur region. Initially drawn from the country’s Janjaweed militias, the RSF was formalized in 2013 under then-President Omar al-Bashir.
Much like Burkina Faso’s VDP, the RSF’s purpose was to provide support in counterinsurgency operations and was later integrated into Sudan’s official military apparatus. However, the RSF became increasingly powerful under its leader, General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, through its lucrative control of Sudan’s gold resources and close ties with external actors, including the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia.
Tensions between the RSF and the SAF escalated during Sudan’s transitional government, following the ouster of al-Bashir in 2019. In April 2023, these tensions culminated in the RSF rebelling against the SAF, plunging Sudan into a devastating civil war that has since caused roughly 200,000 deaths.
The situations in Burkina Faso and Sudan share troubling similarities that raise concerns about the potential for escalating conflict. In both cases, ineffective central governments faced with mounting insecurity have leaned heavily on civilian volunteer forces to combat insurgencies, exacerbating existing ethnic tensions. In Sudan, these dynamics spiraled into a civil war as competing factions turned against one another.
Burkina Faso’s growing reliance on militias and deepening ethnic divides could pose a serious threat to its stability. Traoré’s rise to power, driven by divisions within the military and the competing influences of France and Russia, bears an uncanny resemblance to the ascent of the RSF’s General Dagalo. Like Traoré, Dagalo defied military leadership with the backing of foreign actors, namely the UAE and Saudi Arabia, and commandeered forces loyal to him in order to seize power.
As Burkina Faso continues to lean on militias to address security threats, the risk of ethnic violence and civil war grows, and Sudan serves as a grim warning of what may come.
