Burkina Faso is facing “unprecedented” displacement, triggered by armed groups and intercommunal clashes, United Nations aid officials said on Tuesday.
As of February this year, “some 1.2 million people are in need of assistance”, Laerke told journalists in Geneva, noting that needs had risen significantly since June 2018 and escalated further in the past couple of months.
The affected areas are Burkina Faso’s Sahel, North, North-Centre and Eastern regions, according to the OCHA spokesperson, who explained that the Government had declared a state of emergency in 14 provinces on December 31, mainly in the affected northern and eastern regions.
The humanitarian alert coincides with a visit to the landlocked West African country by UN Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator Ursula Mueller.
Noting that Burkina Faso authorities and humanitarian actors have provided assistance, she insisted that more must be done to meet “growing needs”. Echoing that message in Geneva, Laerke explained that a $100 million appeal to assist 900,000 people hardest-hit is only 16 per cent funded, a month after it was launched.
On Monday, the UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) allocated $4 million to boost urgent assistance to internally displaced persons, people in host communities and provide services for 15,500 women and girls~UNTV CH
