Months of tension and social protest in Burkina Faso led to a military coup this Monday, January 24th. The political crisis is therefore now at a extremely fragile context, characterized by increasingly violent conflict and a spiraling population displacement that made many people struggle to get food, water, shelter and medical care. The humanitarian organizations they have also been affected by violence, making it extremely difficult to provide much-needed aid.
For more than a decade, the central Sahel region, mainly Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, has been the scene of conflicts between various armed groups and the government and international forces. In 2021, Burkina Faso became the largest source of violence in the region, with a sharp rise in kidnappings and attacks, like the one that happened in Solhan in June, when 160 people died. While large-scale attacks like these are covered by the international media, most routine attacks go unnoticed.
According to the UN, more than 1.5 million people were in a country with 20 million forced to leave their homes, the majority in the past three years, as at the end of 2018 there were just over 50,000 displaced persons. Most of these population movements took place in the Sahel, Center-North and Eastern regions, but the conflict gradually affected areas previously considered stable.
Violence can suddenly break out, so the population often flees with nothing but the clothes on their backs. A woman named Salamata, who now lives with her husband and four children in a camp for displaced people in Barsalogho, in the North-Central region, told us last year: “One morning we had the whole town all ran. We took the children and also started running. We were barefoot, but we did not stop until we came to this place, more than 35 kilometers from our house. When we were here, “We found out that many of our family members had been killed and that our homes and property had been destroyed. I may never see our people again.”
The impact of the conflict on the local population has become increasingly pronounced. In addition to the direct consequences of physical violence, many people have lost their homes and livelihoods. For rural communities, running away from home means losing crops and livestock. For the next few months, many will not be able to plant or harvest any crops. With so many people relying on agriculture and livestock to feed their families, the availability of food is a major concern, which is why Médecins Sans Frontières and other organizations distribute food and treat malnourished children.
In the displaced persons camps, the conditions in which people live are very precarious, with insufficient storage space for the rainy season, rudimentary sanitation and insufficient drinking water. People living in these camps tell us that they often have to walk several miles and then wait several hours for water to drink, boil and wash.
Burkina Faso is a country surrounded by land, where it does not rain too much and where water availability decreases due to climate change. Although local communities are doing their best to accommodate the large numbers of displaced people arriving, the increased demand for water is causing widespread shortages. Building wells and truck water is a priority for our teams, as well as for other organizations.
We have been deployed in five of the 13 regions of the country and our workers are seeing the effects of the conflict on people seeking medical help. In addition to treatment for physical injuries caused by violence, many patients also suffer psychological impact they saw people being killed before them and their houses and crops burned and their possessions and livelihoods reduced to nothing.
The dire living conditions expose people to a high risk of diseaseincluding endemic ailments such as malaria, a disease that afflicted 11 million Burkinabe in 2020. Overcrowded conditions also increase the likelihood of infectious diseases of the airway, while poor sanitation and water shortages increase the risk of outbreaks of waterborne diseases such as diarrhea and cholera.
It is clear that the population needs more food, more water and better access to medical care in all the regions currently affected by the conflict in Burkina Faso. However, there is a shortage in the provision of humanitarian assistance due to several factors, including administrative obstacles, lack of funding and above all uncertainty.
Extreme levels of insecurity often prevent people from getting around to see a doctor, while many people cannot afford transportation to the hospital. At the same time, insecurity sometimes prevents health care workers, including MSF workers, from reaching communities in need.
Today, medical and humanitarian teams working in Burkina Faso face risks. MSF staff, as well as those from other organizations and the Ministry of Health, were attacked and sometimes abducted. They stole our ambulances and destroyed health centers. In some places, improvised explosive devices have been planted on roads, making travel potentially deadly.
Related news
As a result of these dangers, we have seen a significant reduction in the number of midwives of the Ministry of Health in the Eastern Region and there was the closure of health centers in the Sahel region after attacks on medical staff. According to the Ministry of Health, with data from June 2021, 357 health structures across the country were closed or not fully operational due to the violence. In addition, there is a shortage of specialist doctors, including surgeons, anesthetists and midwives, in all areas of Burkina Faso affected by violence.
All of this panorama has undoubtedly contributed to the increase in tension, the final consequences of which have so far led to the coup last Monday. And while the world’s attention is focused on the political crisis and insecurity, the humanitarian crisis in Burkina Faso is deteriorating by leaps and bounds and passing unnoticed.
Reference-www.elperiodico.com