The number of people displaced by violence in Burkina Faso since January of last year has increased by more than 1,000 percent to nearly 1 million people, a UN spokesman said on Friday.
The number of internally displaced people rose by more than 57,000 people in June alone to more than 1 million, according to national authorities, said Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. “This is an increase of more than 1,000 percent, compared to 87,000 people in January 2019.”
“Our humanitarian colleagues inform us that the country is facing one of the fastest growing displacement crises in the world this year,” Dujarric said.
“In the first quarter of 2020, we, along with our partners, have reached nearly 1 million people with humanitarian assistance,” he said. “We also have been supporting the COVID-19 government-led response.”
The UN support for the country is in the scale-up of laboratory capacity, providing medical supplies and primary health care services and installing hand-washing facilities in public places, as well as in displacement sites and elsewhere.
Some 250,000 people were reached with food assistance and 10,000 households with livelihood assistance, the spokesman told correspondents at a regular briefing.
The world organization and its humanitarian partners in Burkina Faso are seeking 424 million U.S. dollars to address the humanitarian response needs of 2.2 million people overall, he said.
Northern Burkina Faso has been suffering from terrorist raids as have several other countries in the Sahel.
