Group Says Army Displace 220 Villagers In Revenge Attack.

Human Rights Watch says more than 220 civilians, including at least 56 children, were massacred by Burkina Faso's military in a single day this year.

The group said, investigation shows that, in the attacks on 25 February, the army killed 179 people in Soro village and 44 others in the nearby Nondin village, and termed the mass killings "among the worst army abuse" in nearly a decade.

This is coming after last month, public prosecutor Aly Benjamin Coulibaly appealed for witnesses to identify the group behind the mass killings, while, villagers who survived the attack said, a military convoy with over 100 soldiers descended on Nondin village, about 30 minutes after Islamist fighters passed nearby, adding that, the soldiers went door-to-door, ejecting residents from their homes, and then rounded up villagers in groups before opening fire on them.

The mass killings are believed to be retaliation by the military, which accused the villagers of aiding armed Islamist fighters, after it followed an attack by Islamist fighters on a nearby military camp in the the northern Yatenga province.

International and human rights groups including the European Union and UN have accused Burkina Faso of serious human rights violations in its fight against insurgency, including the indiscriminate killings and forced disappearances of dozens of civilians.