Nearly 10 years on, terrorism and violence instigated by militia groups continues to threaten the peace and safety of tens and thousands of families throughout Burkina Faso. Since 2015, men, women and children have been forced to flee their homes and leave everything behind. In more recent years, Burkina Faso has witnessed unprecedented levels of migration due to widespread drought affecting the Sahel and Horn of Africa region. To date, over 2.06 million people reported to be internally displaced within the country.
“God knows what we lost. Our groundnut, sesame and millet fields are all gone. One day armed groups burst into our village and asked us to leave on the same day. We were forced to leave in the afternoon. Luckily, I didn’t lose any of my family,” recalled Dadjoa Mano, a former resident of the village of Natchanbouri.
Away from his village where he once lived and worked as a farmer who owned over 100 head of livestock, Dadjoa is now forced to live in very difficult conditions and to beg for food for his household of 25 people. “In this situation I have no choice but to feed them,” he shares. Besides the lack of adequate food and work opportunities, Dadjoa says his household do not even have access to latrines or boreholes for sanitation.
Like Dadjoa, Sibila Compaore, a mother of six children, was also forced to leave her home with her family “empty handed” because of the growing insecurity in her village. “There is no worse suffering than this situation in which we find ourselves since our arrival four months ago,” shares Sibila. Without adequate food, money to pay rent, employment opportunities or even basic kitchen utensils, Sibila says she and her family are suffering in the face of so many deprivations.
The threat of terrorism, compounded by harsh climatic conditions, and the lack of government support to assist vulnerable communities in their time of need has left many men, women and children hopeless and exposed to further risks including malnutrition, violence and exploitation.
Due to rising insecurity, drought and flooding, many vulnerable populations within Burkina Faso are without adequate resources to meet their basic needs. In view of the humanitarian situation and in coordination with other humanitarian actors, OCADES-Caritas Burkina with the support of Caritas Internationalis plans to provide aid and various supports to strengthen the livelihoods of vulnerable families including food and nutritional supplements, drinking water, and livestock products.
Through your generous support, you can join Caritas’ mission to help those who are desperately in need of humanitarian aid, like Dadjoa and Sibila, in the Sahel and Horn of Africa by making a donation here: https://www.caritas.org/sahel-and-the-horn-of-africa/.