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WFP / BURKINA FASO NIGER INSURGENCY FAMINE
STORY: WFP / BURKINA FASO NIGER INSURGENCY FAMINE
TRT: 03:21
SOURCE: WFP
RESTRICTIONS: PLEASE CREDIT WFP ON SCREEN
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: OCTOBER 6-8, 2020, BURKINA FASO, NIGER
7 OCTOBER 2020, NEAR KAYA, BURKINA FASO
1. Various shots, security patrols in camp for people displaced from fighting
6 OCTOBER 2020, KAYA, BURKINA FASO
2. Various shots, testing for malnourishment
7 OCTOBER 2020, NEAR KAYA, BURKINA FASO
3. Various shots, WFP Executive Director, David Beasley meets with people displaced by insurgents
4. SOUNDBITE (English) David Beasley, Executive Director, World Food Programme (WFP):
“We believe there are about 11,000 people now in phase 5 famine conditions and we don’t have access to them. If we can get to them we can not only save their lives, we can also change their lives. If we can just get them here, then we can work with them to grow crops and then they won’t have to be dependent on outside help.”
8 OCTOBER 2020, OUALLAM, NIGER
5. Various shots, aerials WFP halfmoons project
7 OCTOBER 2020, KAYA, BURKINA FASO
6. Various shots, halfmoons full of millet
7 OCTOBER 2020, NEAR KAYA, BURKINA FASO
7. SOUNDBITE (English) David Beasley, Executive Director, World Food Programme (WFP):
“Just a year ago there were 200,000 people displaced because of terrorist and extremist groups. Now it’s over 1 million. These are people who are in area who were already struggling in so many ways because of flash floods and droughts and you can look at the land. It’s a tough piece of land. So, we’re working with these internally displaced people to rehabilitate the landscape so they cannot be a burden on the local community, the host and the same time produce more food and take care of their families and sell on the marketplace.”
7 OCTOBER 2020, KAYA, BURKINA FASO
8. Various shots, displaced people weeding in onion patch 3:02-3:21
9. Various shots, displaced people receiving WFP food, cooking and eating
Ahead of the High-Level Ministerial Conference on the Central Sahel in Copenhagen, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) today (19 Oct) warned that unless humanitarian access is urgently granted to organizations like the WFP, catastrophic levels of hunger could hit hard in parts of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger.
In a little more than a year an insurgency has displaced more than 1 million people in Burkina Faso.
Communities in the far north of the country are isolated from crucially needed humanitarian aid. Severe hunger has increased dramatically. Around 11,000 people are suffering from famine in the far northern areas of the country.
Violence and insecurity have pushed 7.4 million people in the Central Sahel region of West Africa into acute hunger. The number of internally displaced people has risen from 70,000 two years ago to nearly 1.6 million today, including over 288,000 in Mali, more than 265,000 in Niger and over one million in Burkina Faso, which is now home to the world’s fastest growing displacement crisis.
Across the Sahel, WFP helps millions of people displaced by insurgency and struggling local communities dig halfmoons to feed their families and livestock. Halfmoons retain water allowing farmers to grow food and fodder in the desert here in the border area where Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali meet.
SOUNDBITE (English) David Beasley, Executive Director, World Food Programme (WFP):
“We believe there are about 11,000 people now in phase 5 famine conditions and we don’t have access to them. If we can get to them we can not only save their lives, we can also change their lives. If we can just get them here, then we can work with them to grow crops and then they won’t have to be dependent on outside help.”
The ability of humanitarian organisations to deliver assistance to those most in need has been jeopardised by worsening conflict and insecurity. Meanwhile, aid workers are also increasingly targeted by non-state armed groups in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger. This means that needy communities are unable to access life-saving humanitarian assistance on which they so desperately depend in times of crisis.
SOUNDBITE (English) David Beasley, Executive Director, World Food Programme (WFP):
“Just a year ago there were 200,000 people displaced because of terrorist and extremist groups. Now it’s over 1 million. These are people who are in area who were already struggling in so many ways because of flash floods and droughts and you can look at the land. It’s a tough piece of land. So, we’re working with these internally displaced people to rehabilitate the landscape so they cannot be a burden on the local community, the host and the same time produce more food and take care of their families and sell on the marketplace.”
WFP -- the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate -- is urging participants at the conference to find ways for organisations to engage with communities and all actors on the ground, opening up safe passageways for humanitarian assistance to reach those in need. The conference is hosted by Denmark, Germany, the European Union and the United Nations.
WFP has continued to ramp up lifesaving assistance in response to the deepening crisis and growing needs - assisting over 3.4 million people in August alone.
WFP has scaled up to meet the growing needs in Burkina, the financial outlook is worrying. WFP was already forced to reduce rations from July 2020 and risks a break for emergency assistance to displaced people – who have fled their homes farms and jobs and have no other options - by November. At the same time, WFP is working to strengthen resilience-building support for at-risk communities.
WFP interventions include rehabilitation of community assets, improving degraded lands, school feeding and community-based nutrition activities for the prevention and treatment of malnutrition. Since 2018, more than one million people have benefitted from WFP’s integrated resilience activities in Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso.
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