The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has appealed for more generous support from the international community as survivors of the massacre in a Burkina Faso village are in desperate need of humanitarian aid.
UNHCR says the available funds cannot keep pace with the growing humanitarian needs in the hugely insecure Sahelian region.
Gunmen attacked the village of Solhan in the West African country’s northeast on 05 June, executing at least 138 civilians, seriously injuring nearly 40 other people and setting houses and a market ablaze.
It is understood that more than 3,300 people have fled for their lives to nearby villages, with the UNHCR spokesman, Babar Balloch, saying that the newly displaced, mostly children and women, have been arriving in desperate straits.
‘The new arrivals urgently need water and sanitation, shelter, essential aid items and medical care’, he said.
‘Authorities have delivered almost 400 tons of food and thousands of relief items, while UNHCR partners are providing medical care and psychosocial support’.
The attack, the deadliest since 2015, highlights the increasing insecurity and violence that has been gaining a foothold in Africa’s Sahel region over the past few years.
The UNHCR calls Burkina Faso the fastest growing displacement and protection crisis in the world.
Since 2019, violence in the country has forced more than 1.2 million people to flee their homes.
So far this year, violence has displaced some 150,000, according to Balloch.
’84 percent, either women, who face a high risk of gender-based violence, or children, half of whom have reportedly been subjected to physical violence and abuse’, he said.
‘In addition to the IDPs, Burkina Faso continues to generously host more than 22,000 refugees and asylum-seekers, mostly from Mali’.
According to UNHCR, only a quarter of the nearly $260 million required to assist Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger this year has been received.
Source: UNHCR
Photo source: UNHCR