About 500,000 People Displaced Within Burkina Faso Over Humanitarian Crisis - UNHCR

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 12th October, 2019) UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) spokesman Andrew Mbogori called on Friday for launching a coordinated response to the acute humanitarian crisis in Burkina Faso's central and northern regions, noting that almost 500,000 people were forced to flee their homes over insecurity and violence.

Islamist groups linked to al-Qaeda and Islamic State terrorist organizations (both banned in Russia) have been carrying out attacks in the West African country since 2016, mostly in its northern Sahel region.

"UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is joining its partners to warn about the unfolding humanitarian crisis in Burkina Faso's central and northern regions where each day the lives of hundreds of thousands of civilian are being disrupted by insecurity and violence. Some 486,000 have been forced to flee within the country, 267,000 of whom in the past 3 months alone. A further 16,000 are refugees in neighboring countries," Mbogori said, as quoted in a statement by the UNHCR press service.

The spokesman stressed that numerous attacks that were being carried out by militants led to an "unprecedented humanitarian emergency" in the Sahel, from where thousands of people fled in a hope to find safer places with poor prospects for return. Mbogori called on the regional community to closely cooperate in providing humanitarian help to affected regions.�

"One thing was absolutely clear. Humanitarian needs are rising fast as conflict and insecurity continues to devastate hundreds of thousands of lives. Hosting communities are already impoverished, living on margins themselves. food, water, shelter, and healthcare has to be arranged and reinforced immediately if we want to avoid another tragedy within this tragedy. Malnutrition and starvation are a real threat," Mbogori pointed out.

The spokesman said that attacks also spilled over to neighboring Mali, Niger and Benin, adding that 5.4 million people in militant-hit areas in the region were in need of urgent assistance and humanitarian support.