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About 10% of the population is displaced and 40 of the west African country’s cities are cut off from aid – but agencies say they have only 17% of the funding needed to help
https://www.theguardian.com/global-...asing-violence-deepens-crisis-in-burkina-faso
In a friend’s house in Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso’s second-largest city, Maimuona* remembers the night her son was born. “There were gunshots and everyone was running,” she says. Jihadists attacked her village, sending everyone scattering into the bush and causing Maimouna to go into labour early. Seydou was born by the side of a sandy road. His nickname is “the lucky one”.
In the two years since, the family have not been able to return home, displaced by an insurgency that has been simmering since 2014, killing thousands and pushing more than 2 million – almost 10% of the population – from their homes. The situation has been described as the world’s most neglected crisis.
The attackers, believed to be from one of the most active terror groups in the country, Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (the Group for the Support for Islam and Muslims), burned houses and shops in Maimuona’s village in Nord region, and killed their goats and cows.
“Do you see the clothes we are wearing? We left with these on, we didn’t have time to grab anything,” says Maimuona, who is now living in the cramped home of her friend in the south-west Hauts-Bassins region, a relatively safe spot in the country, along with her husband, his other wife and their children. One child, Mamourou*, 13, was hit by a motorcycle during the escape. He now walks with a limp because they could not find him medical treatment for the injury.
Fighting broke out in Burkina Faso after an uprising in 2014 ousted president Blaise Compaoré. Compaoré had ruled the country for 27 years and acted as intermediary between the Tuaregs, jihadists and the government of neighbouring Mali during its security crisis in 2012-2013.
https://www.theguardian.com/global-...asing-violence-deepens-crisis-in-burkina-faso
In a friend’s house in Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso’s second-largest city, Maimuona* remembers the night her son was born. “There were gunshots and everyone was running,” she says. Jihadists attacked her village, sending everyone scattering into the bush and causing Maimouna to go into labour early. Seydou was born by the side of a sandy road. His nickname is “the lucky one”.
In the two years since, the family have not been able to return home, displaced by an insurgency that has been simmering since 2014, killing thousands and pushing more than 2 million – almost 10% of the population – from their homes. The situation has been described as the world’s most neglected crisis.
The attackers, believed to be from one of the most active terror groups in the country, Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (the Group for the Support for Islam and Muslims), burned houses and shops in Maimuona’s village in Nord region, and killed their goats and cows.
“Do you see the clothes we are wearing? We left with these on, we didn’t have time to grab anything,” says Maimuona, who is now living in the cramped home of her friend in the south-west Hauts-Bassins region, a relatively safe spot in the country, along with her husband, his other wife and their children. One child, Mamourou*, 13, was hit by a motorcycle during the escape. He now walks with a limp because they could not find him medical treatment for the injury.
Fighting broke out in Burkina Faso after an uprising in 2014 ousted president Blaise Compaoré. Compaoré had ruled the country for 27 years and acted as intermediary between the Tuaregs, jihadists and the government of neighbouring Mali during its security crisis in 2012-2013.