By RFIPalled on 22-09-2019Modified on 22-09-2019 at 19:27

Since the beginning of the year, 300,000 people have been displaced in Burkina because of terrorist attacks that no longer affect only military infrastructure but also civilians. Locals flee hostile northern areas to seek refuge in safer places.

For several weeks, about 40 people, both women and children, live in the Zongo Na Bozwende compound in Yagma, north of Ouagadougou. Belem Boureima's family arrived from his village near Djibo, in the north of the country, in the most complete destitution.

►To read also: [Reportage] Burkina Faso: those who must leave everything because of terrorism

Zongo is from this village, and he has not heard from the North since July. This modest pensioner makes a point of welcoming these displaced. This arrival did not surprise him: " I had seen displaced people who settled here or there. I suspected that someday some would come here. One morning a truck arrived with them, and they came to live here. Of course I'm afraid the jihadists are coming down here. But thank goodness it is not yet the case. Here, we live peacefully and we hope that it will continue. That all will stop before it happens here. But I happen to be afraid. "

Among them, Bintou, who is in his sixties and among the dozen women, describes a climate of fear for civilians, especially men often shot by jihadists: " The attackers threaten men who are forced to spend the night hidden in the bush. leaving us alone at home we women and children. We had to flee. It's not a gaiety of heart. We are here. We think back to what we had there, while today we live in destitution. There, we raised cattle, we cultivated, we ate our fill. It's not the same here, but we have to lead this life . "

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