The Diplomat
The Spanish Agency for International Cooperation and Development (AECID) and Caritas have activated the humanitarian action agreement to assist some 6,800 people displaced by violence in Burkina Faso.
According to an AECID communiqué, the agency will provide humanitarian aid worth 229,161.20 euros through the Caritas initiative in the African country, whose population is affected by a humanitarian crisis aggravated by the conflict, food insecurity, the consequences of Covid and rising food prices.
It is estimated that almost 40% of Burkina Faso’s population is directly affected by the closure or reduction of basic social services and the absence of state services, and more than 7% of the population has been forced to flee their homes in search of safety since the start of the conflict in 2019, according to Caritas.
With a critical security situation, including persistent clashes between armed groups, the country is experiencing numerous security incidents, including violence against civilians and the destruction of public property and infrastructure, causing significant displacement of the population.
The number of internally displaced persons increased from 87,000 in January 2019 to 1,814,283 in February 2022.
In April this year, 1,902,150 IDPs were already registered; 2.77% more than in March, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
The intervention financed by Spanish humanitarian action will consist of delivering cash to a total of 980 internally displaced families and vulnerable residents in Ouahigouya (North), Dori (Sahel) and Ouagadougou (Centre).
In total, the beneficiary population of this intervention, which will last three months, will be around 6,860 people, of whom approximately 55% are women and 45% men.
Each household will receive three cash instalments of 47,500 CFA francs, or 72.41 euros, so that at the end of the intervention each household will have received 142,500 francs, or 217.2 euros, a sum agreed upon by the Food Security cluster in the country.
