DAKAR, Senegal
Violence linked to al-Qaida
and the Islamic State group has made Burkina Faso a country with one of the
world’s fastest-growing populations of internally displaced people, with the
number mushrooming by more than 2,000% since 2019, according to government
data.An aerial view shows a camp of internally displaced people in Djibo, Burkina Faso
Figures released last month
showed more than 2 million people are internally displaced in the West African
nation, the majority of them women and children, fueling a dire humanitarian
crisis as the conflict pushed people from their homes, off their farms and into
congested urban areas or makeshift camps.
Aid groups and the government
are scrambling to respond amid a lack of funds and growing needs. One in four
people requires aid, and tens of thousands are facing catastrophic
levels of hunger. Yet not even half of the $800 million humanitarian
response budget requested last year by aid groups was funded, according to the
United Nations.
“The spectrum of consequences
(for people) is vast but grim at every point. A lot of people might die, and
they’re dying because they weren’t able to access food and health services,
because they weren’t properly protected, and the humanitarian assistance and
the government response wasn’t sufficient,” Alexandra Lamarche, a senior fellow
at advocacy group Refugees International, said.
The violence has divided a
once-peaceful nation, leading to two coups last year. Military leaders vowed to
to stem the insecurity, but jihadi attacks have continued and spread since
Capt. Ibrahim Traore seized power in September.
The government retains control
of less than 50% of the country, largely in rural areas, according to conflict
analysts. Al-Qaida and Islamic State-affiliated groups control or threaten
large areas, said Rida Lyammouri, senior fellow at the Policy Center for the
New South, a Morocco-based think tank.
“State security forces don’t
have the resources (human and equipment) to fight both groups at all fronts,”
he said.
The jihadis’ strategy of
blocking towns, preventing people from moving freely and goods from flowing in,
has compounded the displacement crisis. Some 800,000 people in more than 20
towns are under siege, say aid groups.
“The situation is very
difficult. ... People don’t have food, children don’t have school,” Bibata
Sangli, 53, who left the eastern town of Pama in January 2022 just before it
came under siege. She still has family there who are unable to leave, Sangli
said.Internally displaced people wait for aid in Djibo, Burkina Faso
A community leader who last
year met Jafar Dicko, the top jihadi in Burkina Faso, said Dicko’s group
blockades towns that don’t accept its rules, such as banning alcohol and
requiring women to be veiled their faces. The leader spoke on condition of
anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak to the media.
In January, the United Nations
began using Chinook heavy-lift helicopters to airlift food to areas inaccessible
by road - an extremely costly approach. The three Chinooks were reduced to one
in May, making it harder to reach many people as quickly.
While the humanitarian
situation deteriorates, so has the ability of aid groups to operate.
Since the military takeovers
of Burkina Faso’s government began in January 2022, incidents against aid
organizations perpetrated by the security forces increased from one in 2021 to
11 last year, according to unpublished data for aid groups seen by The Associated
Press. The incidents included workers being arrested, detained and injured.
In November, security forces
killed a humanitarian worker with a Burkina Faso aid organization in the Sahel
region, the vast expanse below the Sahara Desert, according to a text message
sent to an aid worker WhatsApp group seen by the AP.
Rights groups, analysts and
civilians say Traore, the junta leader, is only focused on achieving military
gains and cares little about human rights, freedom of speech or holding people
accountable for indiscriminate killings of individuals suspected of supporting
the militants.
Burkina Faso’s security forces
killed at least 150
civilians in the north in April, according to local residents from the
village of Karma, where most of the violence took place. Prosecutors said they
opened an investigation into the killings.
Earlier this year, an
AP investigation into a video circulating on social media determined
that Burkina Faso’s security forces killed children at a military base in the
country’s north.
While the government wages
war, civilians bear the brunt and are running out of hope.
After jihadis attacked his
village in eastern Burkina Faso in April, killing people and stealing cattle, a
father of five, who did not want to be identified for security reasons, fled to
the region’s main town of Fada N’Gourma.
But now his family doesn’t
have food or access to health care, and the assistance supplied by humanitarian
groups isn’t enough, he said.
“Since we’ve been displaced,
our situation keeps getting worse,” the 46-year-old man said. “I miss my home.”
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