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BURKINA FASO / HUMANITARIAN EMERGENCY
STORY: BURKINA FASO / HUMANITARIAN EMERGENCY
TRT: 4:06
SOURCE: UNHCR
RESTRICTIONS: PLEASE CREDIT UNHCR ON SCREEN
LANGUAGE: GOURMATCHÉ / MORRÉ / NATS
DATELINE: 3-4 FEBRUARY 2020, KAYA, BURKINA FASO
3-4 FEBRUARY 2020, KAYA, BURKINA FASO
1. Wide shot, Dianbendé walking with men and women
2. Close up, Dianbendé
3. Various shots, Dianbendé speaking to community
4. Wide shot, mothers and children sitting on ground
5. Med shot, mothers and children sitting on ground
6. SOUNDBITE (Gourmatché) Dianbendé Madiaga, community leader:
“As a chief, it is my duty to take in those who come to me for help.”
7. Wide shot, Dianbendé walking with men and women
8. Wide shot, men and women standing, looking at camera
9. Close up, Rinata Baguigna walking
10. Wide shot, Rinata Baguigna speaking to elder woman
11. SOUNDBITE (Morré) Rinata Baguigna, displaced mother of five from Sahel region, Burkina Faso: “He’s helped by giving us food. His wives have helped by provided us with cookware, because when we left, we couldn’t bring anything. He really helps us – even with water. It’s a real problem here. There’s no water.”
12. Wide shot, refugees standing in group
13. Wide shot, Brick construction, wheelbarrows
14. Wide shot, woman walking with water jug on her head
15. Wide shot, woman carrying water jug
16. Wide shot, Dianbendé walking towards UNHCR Refugee Housing Unit (RHU)
17. Wide shot, displaced persons sitting in RHU with Dianbendé at door
18. Close up, Dianbendé at the door of the RHU speaking with displaced persons
19. Various shots, Rinata Baguigna comforting woman
20. SOUNDBITE (Morré) Rinata Baguigna, displaced mother of five from Sahel region, Burkina Faso:
“The chief and his wives are really there to support me. They talk with me. And that’s what helps me comfort other women and tell them there are people here who can help.”
21. Wide shots, Dianbendé walking in village
22. SOUNDBITE (Morré) Rinata Baguigna, displaced mother of five from Sahel region, Burkina Faso:
“In truth, we hope and pray to God that things will improve.”
23. Med shot, Rinata and woman sitting
24. Close up, child
25. Close up, Rinata Baguigna
The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said a humanitarian disaster is unfolding in Burkina Faso, one of the world’s poorest countries, as a rise in attacks sends civilians fleeing the northern regions nearing Mali and Niger.
UNCHR said there were now 765,000 people internally displaced, according to government figures, in a country of just 20 million people. This represents a rise of more than 1,000% in just a year. The Agency added that there was an alarming lack of resources to manage the needs of the internally displaced, who are struggling to secure shelter, water and food. By the end of 2019, UNHCR had received just under 70 per cent (a shortfall of USD 30.5 million) of the funding it needed to adequately address the situation in the country.
When the first person came to Dianbendé, explaining he fled for his life and now needed shelter, the community leader let him in. Many have since followed, after being run out of their homes by the armed groups spreading terror across northern Burkina Faso. They have come to Kaya, a town now at the epicentre of the displacement crisis already suffering from a lack of basic resources like food and water. Here Dianbendé is now sheltering more than 2,500 people, representing 365 extended households.
SOUNDBITE (Gourmatché) Dianbendé Madiaga, community leader:
“As a chief, it is my duty to take in those who come to me for help.”
Dianbendé is a leader of ethnic Gourmatché in the town of Kaya, in the Centre-North Region. He is also a professional medicinal healer. He says he is animated by a sense of duty to care for others – and this includes Burkinabés of all ethnicities and from different regions. Kaya is sheltering hundreds of thousands of people.
UNCHR said rampant insecurity has had an adverse impact on the humanitarian response in the most affected areas, since humanitarian actors are now unable to reach many people in need in parts of the Sahel region. People fleeing the violence report attacks on their villages by militant groups, killing, raping, pillaging. Terrified of these attacks, residents have left everything behind to find safety.
Rinata watched as her relatives were shot dead. She made it out on foot with her husband and five children. When they got to Kaya, they came to Dianbendé for help.
SOUNDBITE (Morré) Rinata Baguigna, displaced mother of five from Sahel region, Burkina Faso: “He’s helped by giving us food. His wives have helped by provided us with cookware, because when we left, we couldn’t bring anything. He really helps us – even with water. It’s a real problem here. There’s no water.”
UNHCR said Burkina Faso’s displaced have almost nowhere to go. Their home near the border with Mali and Niger has become a lawless no man’s land.
Families Dianbendé is sheltering come from Mossi, Fulsé, Peul, Maransé, Gourmatché and Bella ethnicities. He also has been providing some actual accommodation to people and allotting his land for people to sleep on. He has asked neighbours to give people space to sleep – land or in any available shelter.
Getting help has enabled Rinata to give help, too. She has been providing emotional support to women coping with the trauma of rape or the murder of their husbands. She said the women have emotional trauma and many have nightmares.
SOUNDBITE (Morré) Rinata Baguigna, displaced mother of five from Sahel region, Burkina Faso:
“The chief and his wives are really there to support me. They talk with me. And that’s what helps me comfort other women and tell them there are people here who can help.”
Each day brings new arrivals and more mouths to feed, and for Dianbendé, more lives to protect.
SOUNDBITE (Morré) Rinata Baguigna, displaced mother of five from Sahel region, Burkina Faso:
“In truth, we hope and pray to God that things will improve.”
UNHCR said it has set up emergency Refugee Housing Unit (RHU) shelters for the most vulnerable families – but there is an acute lack of safe, protected spaces. Many of the hundreds of thousands of who have come to Kaya and the Centre-North region are sleeping out in the cold, exposed to the elements – including children, among whom UNHCR is seeing signs of increasing respiratory diseases.
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