Burkina Faso and turning the tide on conflict
Hunger and instability taking a toll on thousands of threatened civilian lives
As the new year ushered in a new decade, the world welcomed the future with optimism and the promise of making better choices learned from past mistakes. But in West Africa’s Burkina Faso, a mere few days into 2020 brought the same misery of the previous decade as instability and climate change threatened the lives of millions of people.
Two attacks rocked the country in the weeks that ended a decade and began a new one, with women and children, as always, bearing the brunt. One of the attacks killed 35 people in a church. Another was a roadside bomb that blew up a bus of schoolchildren killing 14.
In a country long known for its religious harmony and social cohesion, violence has been on the rise. Armed groups have spread across the north region of Burkina Faso with surprising speed, particularly in 2019 when nearly 2,000 people were massacred, and more than half a million others forced to flee their homes.
Burkina Faso is not alone in this grim reality. The entire Sahel region including Mali and Niger are grappling with the rising tide of a militancy that has created the fastest-growing displacement crisis in Africa. Across the Sahel region, nearly one million people are now displaced, while 3.3 million people cannot guarantee their next meal. This continues to happen right under our noses. And yet, such a dire situation has failed to capture and hold the attention of the world.
In Pissila, where some camps have been set up for displaced families, I met 61-year-old Zore Youssouf, a farmer who fled his village with his family after his brother was killed by gunmen.
He has been living in displacement since May.
“When they killed my brother, Boureima, I hid in a river bed and came back in the morning to save my family. I left everything behind, no bicycle, no clothes, just the clothes I am wearing now,” Youssouf said, after which he pleaded for help and wished he could one day return to his home. All the Burkinabè I spoke with said food for their families and the ability to go back home were their top priority.
Before the violence uprooted him, Youssouf made a living farming his three hectares of land in Goeba village. In recent years however extreme weather patterns have meant less rainfall and more dry, barren land. As farmlands wither and die, the country is gradually becoming fertile ground for insurgent groups who can easily recruit disenfranchised young men living in poverty.
To date, there is little international help for displaced families in Burkina Faso and its Sahelian neighbours Niger and Mali, where around 40 per cent of the population in each of these countries scrape by on less than $2 (U.S.) a day. Niger and Mali are in the same boat. The World Food Programme needs $125 million (U.S.) to continue its operations in the three countries until June this year.
Perhaps this is because many have been desensitized to ongoing suffering across the world with the conflict, disasters and hunger present in many countries. It is easier to turn away from such hardships.
Yet we know from the last decade that the cost of acting too late is far greater than tackling crises head-on. The world did not address the root causes of conflicts quickly enough in the last decade and that resulted in mass migration and great social and economic instability across the globe. At WFP we know that every one per cent rise in the rate of hunger there is a two per cent increase in migration.
If the descent into insecurity and hunger are not stemmed, the crisis in Burkina Faso and the Sahel region may threaten the wider region as desperate people and families disperse across borders in search of stability and a better future. Several West African countries that have been struggling with insecurity and chronic poverty are seeing more and more young people risking their lives to cross the desert and ocean to reach Europe. With continuous conflict in the region, this trend is likely to increase.
Supporting displaced people in Burkina Faso and the Sahel is less costly than dealing with them as refugees should they feel too desperate at home. Nobody wants to leave their homes. By providing food and economic security in the form of emergency humanitarian assistance and addressing the root causes of conflict by offering local populations resilience and sustainable projects, governments and non-government organizations can help control the cycle of despair that could spiral out of control.
Perhaps on the surface the new decade does not appear to hold much optimism for the people of Burkina Faso. But if we only apply the lessons learned from the last decade, if we avoid making the same mistakes and choose to do things differently this time, the 2020s may live up to the expectations after all.