2M people displaced in Burkina Faso: Aid groups

By James Tasamba

KIGALI, Rwanda (AA) – Almost 2 million people have been displaced in Burkina Faso amid the worst food crisis in a decade, international aid groups operating in the West African country said Monday.

In a statement, the groups said nearly one in 10 people in Burkina Faso had been displaced by conflict.

Most worryingly, the rate of severe food insecurity has nearly doubled compared to last year, with over 600,000 people in emergency hunger levels during this lean season, according to the aid groups.

“Too often, displacement and hunger come as a one-two punch,” said Hassane Hamadou, country director of the Norwegian Refugee Council.

“People forced to move have left behind their fields and livestock. Many displaced families report being down to one meal a day in order to allow children to eat twice. Recent waves of displacement only heighten the urgency to act,” said Hamadou.

In a national address Sunday, Burkina Faso junta leader Lt. Col. Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba pointed to a relative calm in several localities previously regularly tested by terrorist attacks in the country in recent months.

Some populations are gradually beginning to return to these regions, he said.

But the aid agencies said numerous violent attacks drove more people to flee this January to July than in all of last year.

“We now see more and more people forced to flee not from their hometowns, but increasingly from places where they had previously sought refuge,” said Philippe Allard, director in Burkina Faso of the NGO Humanity & Inclusion, adding that each new displacement increases their vulnerability, and chips away at their resources and mental health.

Benoit Delsarte, country director of Save the Children, said for children, who make up for the majority of the displaced, leaving their home behind is traumatic enough but “having to flee again and again while trying to survive robs families of any chance to rebuild their lives.”

The aid groups have called for an urgent surge of financial resources. Eight months into the year, the humanitarian response has only 36% of the funding required despite soaring needs, the statement said.