Burkina Faso’s military government on Monday, August 18, expelled the United Nations’ top representative in the country after a UN report accused both armed groups and pro-government forces of recruiting children in the country’s jihadist conflict.
In a statement, the junta declared UN resident humanitarian coordinator Carol Flore-Smereczniak “persona non grata,” accusing her of being responsible for “baseless” allegations contained in the March report Children and Armed Conflict in Burkina Faso. Authorities claimed the UN relied on “falsehoods” and failed to provide evidence to substantiate its findings.
The report documented widespread violations against minors, including recruitment, killings, sexual violence, abductions, and attacks on schools and hospitals. Most abuses were attributed to jihadist groups such as the Al-Qaeda-linked Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM) and Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS). However, investigators also found that Burkina Faso’s security forces and their civilian auxiliaries—the Volunteers for the Defence of the Nation (VDP)—were responsible for roughly one-fifth of the confirmed cases.
Among the verified incidents, VDP members were accused of abducting 23 children and committing four of 20 confirmed rapes.
Flore-Smereczniak, a Mauritian national who took office in July 2024, becomes the second senior UN official expelled by the junta in recent years. In December 2022, her predecessor, Italian national Barbara Manzi, was forced out under similar circumstances.
Burkina Faso has faced a jihadist insurgency for more than a decade. Since the military seized power in September 2022, the junta has pledged to restore security but has struggled to contain escalating violence. More than 26,000 people—both civilians and soldiers—have been killed since the conflict began, with over half of the deaths recorded in the past three years.
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