Burkina Faso’s junta on Monday expelled the United Nations’ top representative in the country, declaring her “persona non grata” over a report that accused armed groups — and government forces — of recruiting children in the ongoing jihadist conflict.
The military government ordered UN resident humanitarian coordinator Carol Flore-Smereczniak to leave, accusing her of bearing “responsibility” for the March report titled Children and Armed Conflict in Burkina Faso. The report documented grave abuses against minors, including recruitment, killings, rape, abductions, and attacks on schools and hospitals.
While most violations were attributed to Al-Qaeda-linked JNIM and Islamic State in the Greater Sahara, investigators also held Burkina Faso’s security forces and their civilian auxiliaries — the Volunteers for the Defence of the Nation — responsible for one-fifth of cases. These included verified incidents of abduction and sexual violence.
The junta dismissed the findings as “baseless assertions and falsehoods,” claiming the UN had provided no supporting evidence.
Flore-Smereczniak, a Mauritian national appointed in July 2024, is the second UN official to be expelled in less than three years, after Italian diplomat Barbara Manzi was declared unwelcome in December 2022.
Burkina Faso has endured a jihadist insurgency for over a decade, with more than 26,000 deaths recorded, half of them in the past three years. Despite promises to restore order since its September 2022 coup, the junta has struggled to halt escalating violence, while its forces face mounting allegations of civilian abuses.