Panafrican News Agency

Burkina Faso: Humanitarian organisations come to aid of population of Djibo (UN)

Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso (PANA) - Faced with the "complex humanitarian situation in Djibo", humanitarian organizations are mobilizing to provide rapid assistance to newly displaced people or civilians under siege in certain localities, the United Nations (UN) has announced.

Since Thursday, UN humanitarian agencies have delivered nearly nine tonnes of emergency aid, including medicines and therapeutic food.

"The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) is accelerating the delivery of therapeutic food and medicines for the most vulnerable children," the UN agency said in a tweet, according to a UN note.

This locality where 300,000 civilians live has been under siege for eight months by armed terrorist groups. Thanks to the helicopters managed by UNHAS (United Nations Humanitarian Air Service), UN agencies and their humanitarian partners operating in Djibo and other hard-to-reach areas of the country are racing against time to provide emergency assistance to the population.

"Thanks to this UN humanitarian air service, this aid, consisting of therapeutic food, will allow the treatment of 2,000 malnourished children and pregnant and lactating women, as well as vitamin supplements for 9,500 children," the note said.

"We are deploying our logistics for the care of children threatened by malnutrition and childhood diseases," said Sandra Lattouf, UNICEF Representative in Burkina Faso, who went to Djibo to support partner teams delivering aid to the population, in a tweet.

According to the UN, Djibo has been under continuous blockade since March 2022, forcing both aid workers and the population to restrict their movements to a minimum.

In the face of rising insecurity due to the activity of armed terrorist groups, public transport buses were forced to stop serving the locality until early April (7 April), when they were again accepted after irregular checkpoints.

In its situation report, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimates that the population has since experienced a shortage of basic necessities (such as food, water, soap) but also an inflation in the price of hydrocarbons in particular.

"Our humanitarian priority is to save lives and meet the most urgent needs," said Barbara Manzi, UN Resident Coordinator in Burkina Faso and Humanitarian Coordinator, in a statement.

"Safeguarding their well-being, and especially that of children, in Djibo and elsewhere is essential in these very difficult times the country is going through," she stressed.

Even as political events unfolded in the capital Ouagadougou, new displacements were reported in some of the regions most affected by the ongoing humanitarian crisis, OCHA said.

In the Centre North region, more than 13,000 people were newly displaced by non-state armed groups between 1 and 2 October, including about 7,000 people from surrounding villages to Kaya, the Centre North regional headquarters.

"More than 6,300 other people from the village of Bam were also displaced to Kongoussi, a town in the western part of the same region, according to the regional director of humanitarian action," OCHA said in its report on the humanitarian situation in West Africa.

According to the UN, the humanitarian situation in Burkina Faso remains critical, with 4.9 million people in need of assistance, including 1.5 million IDPs.

The central Sahel country is facing a nutritional crisis. According to UNICEF, nearly 700,000 children under the age of five are at risk of acute malnutrition.

In total, at least 3.4 million people are food insecure in this West African country. Yet despite these enormous needs, the $805 million appeal has been 30% funded, or $238 million, with a shortfall of $566 million, the UN warned.

For example, the refugee response received zero dollars. Another largely underfunded sector is education, which has received only 2.8%, or 1.5 million out of 54 million.

With more than 111 million, the United States remains Ouagadougou's largest donor.

-0- PANA TNDD/JSG/BBA/RA 8Oct2022