Highlights: Lack of funding and access difficulties linked to insecurity have prevented around sixty organizations from operating. Only a third of the funds needed to cover the most urgent humanitarian needs in Burkina Faso were allocated last year. For the inhabitants of the forty localities under blockade, it is a double punishment. Due to the presence of terrorist groups, they already no longer have access to their agricultural land and therefore to their usual means of subsistence. The airlift carried out by a single cargo helicopter is not able to reach all localities in need.

Burkina Faso: 500,000 people living under blockade will not have access to humanitarian aid in 2023

In Burkina Faso, nearly 500,000 people living in areas under blockade were unable to benefit from aid or humanitarian assistance from international NGOs present in the country in 2023, according to the Norwegian Refugee Council. According to the NGO, the lack of funding and access difficulties linked to insecurity have prevented around sixty organizations from operating.

Internally displaced people wait for aid in Djibo, Burkina Faso, May 26, 2022. AP - Sam Mednick

By: RFI Follow

“

Only a third of the funds needed to cover the most urgent humanitarian needs in

Burkina Faso
were allocated last year

,” explains Rachel Mikanagu, director of the forum of international humanitarian

NGOs

present in Burkina Faso.

This lack of funding considerably reduces the assistance provided to the populations. And for the inhabitants of the forty localities under blockade, it is a double punishment. Due to the presence of terrorist groups, they already no longer have access to their agricultural land and therefore to their usual means of subsistence.

Read alsoBurkina Faso: the humanitarian distress of residents in cities under blockade

The airlift carried out by a single cargo helicopter is not able to reach all localities in need. In addition, transport by plane costs twelve times more than by road.

Since the end of 2022, the United Nations Secretariat for Humanitarian Affairs has been campaigning for the reopening of corridors so “

that humanitarians can transport goods by land without military escort

”. This option is currently rejected by the country's authorities, because it would de facto lead to discussions with the terrorist groups present in these areas.

Remember that since taking power, Captain

Ibrahim Traoré

has set himself the objective of “

eradication of terrorists

”.

We are present in many localities, including some under blockade.

02:03

Ousmane Drabo, regional spokesperson for the Norwegian Refugee Council

Kaourou Magassa

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Burkina Faso: 500,000 people living under blockade will not have access to humanitarian aid in 2023

Burkina Faso: 500,000 people living under blockade will not have access to humanitarian aid in 2023

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