GENEVA / BURKINA FASO DISPLACEMENT CRISIS

Burkina Faso is facing “unprecedented” displacement, triggered by armed groups and intercommunal clashes, United Nations aid officials said on Tuesday. UNTV CH

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:01:40
• Production Date: 5 March 2019
• Asset Language: English
• Corporate Name: OFFICE FOR THE COORDINATION OF HUMANITARIAN AFFAIRS - OCHA
• Subject Topical: DISPLACED PERSONS
• Geographic Subject: BURKINA FASO
• MAMS Id: 2364168
• Parent Id: 2364168
• Alternate Title: unifeed190305a

Description

STORY: GENEVA / BURKINA FASO DISPLACEMENT CRISIS
TRT: 1:40
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS

DATELINE: 5 MARCH 2019, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND

Shotlist

1. Exterior shot, Palais des Nations.
2. Wide shot, United Nations press room.
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Jens Laerke, United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA):
“The country is now facing an unprecedented internal displacement crisis with more than 100,000 people uprooted from their homes, 70,000 of them in the past two months alone.”
4. Med shot, journalists.
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Jens Laerke, United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA):
“As of February this year, some 1.2 million people are in need of assistance in Burkina Faso.”
6. Med shot, journalist, spokespersons.
SOUNDBITE (English) Jens Laerke, United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA):
“Around 120,000 people have no access to medical care and some 670,000 people are at risk of food insecurity; 130,000 people are threatened by severe acute malnutrition this year and their schools have closed, depriving almost 150,000 people – children – of their education.”
7. Med shot, podium.
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Jens Laerke, United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA):
“So it is intercommunal clashes, clashes between communities and laid over that is the emergence of armed groups which are fighting each other, fighting Government forces and attacking civilians. That has escalated in the second half of last year and really it took off at the beginning of this year, there were some very violent clashes in the beginning of January.”
9. Wide shot, podium.
10. Close up, hands typing on laptops.
11. Close up, journalists.
12. Med shot, journalists.
13. Med shot, journalist.

Storyline

Burkina Faso is facing “unprecedented” displacement, triggered by armed groups and intercommunal clashes, United Nations aid officials said on Tuesday.

“The country is now facing an unprecedented internal displacement crisis with more than 100,000 people uprooted from their homes, 70,000 of them in the past two months alone,” said Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

As of February this year, “some 1.2 million people are in need of assistance”, Laerke told journalists in Geneva, noting that needs had risen significantly since June 2018 and escalated further in the past couple of months.

The affected areas are Burkina Faso’s Sahel, North, North-Centre and Eastern regions, according to the OCHA spokesperson, who explained that the Government had declared a state of emergency in 14 provinces on December 31, mainly in the affected northern and eastern regions.
“So it is intercommunal clashes, clashes between communities and laid over that is the emergence of armed groups which are fighting each other, fighting Government forces and attacking civilians,” Laerke said. “That has escalated in the second half of last year and really it took off at the beginning of this year, there were some very violent clashes in the beginning of January.”

The humanitarian alert coincides with a visit to the landlocked West African country by UN Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator Ursula Mueller.

Noting that Burkina Faso authorities and humanitarian actors have provided assistance, she insisted that more must be done to meet “growing needs”. Echoing that message in Geneva, Laerke explained that a $100 million appeal to assist 900,000 people hardest-hit is only 16 per cent funded, a month after it was launched.

“Around 120,000 people have no access to medical care and some 670,000 people are at risk of food insecurity,” Laerke said, while “130,000 people are threatened by severe acute malnutrition this year and their schools have closed, depriving almost 150,000 people – children – of their education.”

On Monday, the UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) allocated $4 million to boost urgent assistance to internally displaced persons, people in host communities and provide services for 15,500 women and girls.