More than a million people are fleeing terror and violence in Burkina Faso, and their numbers are growing. Many are left to fend for themselves as they struggle to survive.
People flee their homes for fear of terrorists
Jacob Ouermi does not like to talk about what his family has gone through. He, his wife Elisabet Simpore and their seven children lived in a village in northern Burkina Faso — until the violence started.
"People were kidnapped, so we fled and didn't take anything with us," said Ouermi, sitting on a narrow wooden bench in the shade of a tree by a small house in the provincial capital of Ouahigouya, a three-hour drive northwest of the capital, Ouagadougou.
Jacob Ouermi (middle) alongside other refugees
At first, Ouermi and his family relocated to a village next to the one they came from. "But there, it was just as bad," he recalled. "First my wife and children stayed. Then my wife tried to retrieve some of our belongings," he said. Ouermi soon left because he couldn't stand the violence. "They killed many people, including my neighbors. I was just too scared."
Unknown attackers
Less than a year ago, the family eventually moved on to Ouahigouya. At night, unfamiliar sounds still make them uneasy. The provincial capital is one of the few cities in the north that is still reasonably safe to reach by car, unlike the surrounding towns and villages. Even convoys that are assumed to be protected are attacked. Ouermi has no idea who the attackers are. "We call them terrorists. We don't even know who is who," he shrugged.
Various terrorist groups operate in Burkina Faso, including the al-Qaeda linked group Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM), which originated in Mali, and the so-called Islamic State of the Greater Sahara (EIGS), which is active in the border region with Niger in the east. Outlaws take advantage of the bad security situation and also carry out attacks.
Abdouraouf Gnon-Konde is responsible for a million refugees
The situation is increasingly driving people away from their homes. At the end of August, more than 1.4 million people were displaced in Burkina Faso, according to government figures. The problem is no longer confined to one region, said Abdouraouf Gnon-Konde, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) country director.
People are wary
Burkina Faso was long considered a model state where different ethnic and religious groups lived together peacefully. But that has changed, said Jacob Ouermi, pointing out that the country's many problems have given rise to "a lot of mistrust."
The refugee crisis has aggravated poverty in a country that has always ranked low on the United Nations Development Index — currently, it stands at 182 out of 189 countries. There are hardly any permanent jobs and many people are small farmers. "We simply exist, there is nothing to do and if we aren't given food, we have nothing to eat," said Ouermi. The locals in Ouahigouya have provided refugees with small fields but the land does not yield enough to feed a family.
Some refugees have found a new home in emergency shelters
Education is another problem. The Ouermi family's older children have already missed several years of school. State schools are already overcrowded — and that situation does not take internally displaced persons (IDPs) into account. This school year, 2,244 educational institutions remained closed because of terrorist attacks. Nearly 54% of IDPs are younger than 14, says the UN's Abdouraouf Gnon-Konde.
"They are waiting to go back to school. School is the key to creating a future for these children," he said. Aid organizations have launched a number of projects to make up for missed lessons, but it's not enough.
Trying to survive on €1.50 a day
Sandrine Kabore's children are still too young to go to school. She and her daughters, Maimata and Cherifatou, live on the outskirts of Ouagadougou. They fled to the capital from the town of Kaya, about 100 kilometers (62 miles) from Ouagadougou.
Kabore's husband works in Ivory Coast and sends the equivalent of between €15 ($17) and €25 every few months. Sandrine, 19, is constantly on the lookout for jobs. Sometimes she makes €1.50 a day as a laundress, sometimes less — sometimes there is no job.
Sandrine Kabore tries to make do as best she can
The family lives in an emergency shelter that Adama Sawadogo, an internally displaced person from Djibo, built with donations. It consists of two buildings with 18 rooms that are 16 square meters (172 square feet) each. In 2019, there were times when 78 households lived in the shelter, said Sawadogo, "at least four women with nine or 10children slept in every room."
Kabore is hoping to find new housing — the shelter, she said, is infested with mice and cockroaches, and the walls leak. Officially, 1,051 IDPs live in the central region, which includes Ouagadougou. But many people are not registered, so they are not recognized as displaced.
The refugee crisis has also long since reached neighboring countries. "Between 20,000 and 25,000 Burkinabe live in Mali," according to Gnon-Konde, who added that 12,000-to-15,000 have found asylum in Niger, 4,000-to-5,000 live in northern Benin and about 5,000 in Ivory Coast. Increasingly, young Burkinabe are seeking asylum in Europe.
The UNHCR doesn't have the funds to take care of all the refugees, said Gnon-Konde, adding that only a fourth of the roughly $602 million needed for 2021 is currently funded. "Europe is already doing a lot," he said. "And we would like that to continue — what happens here concerns everyone."
This article has been translated from German
Bangladesh: Gang violence in Rohingya refugee camps prompt fear
Violence has been on the rise in the country's sprawling cluster of refugee settlements, with armed gangs vying for power and kidnapping opponents.
Violence in the settlements has taken the lives of at least 89 Rohingya since their mass exodus from Myanmar in August 2017
Growing conflicts among armed criminal gangs inside overcrowded Rohingya refugee camps in southern Bangladesh have alarmed authorities.
At least six people were killed and 20 wounded in an attack at a Rohingya camp in Cox's Bazar on Friday, police said — the latest incident of violence in the refugee settlement.
The gang shot and stabbed people attending an Islamic school in the camp, killing three teachers, two volunteers and a student, according to police.
In September, the murder of a prominent civilian Rohingya leader exposed growing conflicts among armed criminal gangs inside the sprawling settlements.
Mohibullah, 48, was killed in his office by unknown gunmen in a camp. The teacher had become a leading voice for the stateless community, uniting refugees to return to Myanmar if the Buddhist-majority country offered them citizenship. The attackers are yet to be identified.
PM: Rohingyas pose 'a huge security threat'
Conflicts within the camps have taken the lives of at least 89 Rohingya since the mass exodus in August 2017, when more than 730,000 Rohingya fled from Myanmar's Rakhine State to neighbouring Bangladesh following sweeping military retaliation to attacks by Rohingya insurgents on police posts and an army base.
A further 109 refugees, who were allegedly involved in drug trafficking, were killed by Bangladeshi security forces in the so-called crossfires in 2018.
Bangladesh has been considered a safe haven for many Rohingya Muslims who have sought refuge to save themselves from the crackdowns launched by Myanmar's security forces. The Buddhist-majority country doesn't recognize the minority group as citizens and limits their freedom in the country.
But in June, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said Rohingyas were increasingly "posing a huge security threat to Bangladesh as well as the region."
'Only a small part is involved'
Nur Khan, a human rights activist who has been monitoring the security situation in Cox's Bazar, says the main forms of criminal activity taking place in the camps include drug trafficking, human trafficking and abduction.
He thinks at least three armed Rohingya criminal gangs are currently fighting for control of the camps in Bangladesh.
"Although the conflicts have been taking place inside the camps so far, it could spread outside in the future," Khan told DW.
"These armed groups might try to buy arms from local and international traffickers through sea routes, which could deteriorate the security situation in Cox's Bazar drastically," he said, adding: "They might even sell some of those arms to local Bangladeshi criminals."
As the country's security forces have intensified operations inside the camps to crackdown on armed groups, Khan fears criminals might attack in retaliation.
"I have seen some online messages of the criminal groups where they have shown interest in attacking the Bangladeshi security forces, something that has never happened in the past," he underlined.
But the human rights activist stressed that "only a small" group of Rohingya refugees with past criminal records were involved in the conflicts.
Fears of radicalization grow
While there has been no sign of Rohingya refugees getting involved in terrorism or linking themselves with Bangladeshi or transborder extremist religious groups, some have expressed concerns the situation could change in the future.
"Unfortunately, in South Asia, it's not unheard of for refugees to be accused of involvement in terrorism. This allegation has been used against Afghan refugees in Pakistan, and in India, Muslim migrants have been viewed as security threats," Michael Kugelman, a South Asia expert at the Washington-based Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars, told DW.
Kugelman thinks some Rohingya refugees may have been "radicalized" by their horrific treatment at the hands of the Myanmar military, but says it's a tiny minority.
"Most Rohingya refugees, and especially those in Bangladesh, are more concerned about survival and providing for their families than about plotting violent attacks," he added.
A Rohingya expert who wished to remain anonymous told DW refugees "know very well" that any "wrong move" in Bangladesh could jeopardize their "safe haven."
"I haven't seen any activity by refugees in Cox's Bazar that could suggest they have an interest in terrorism or extremism in Bangladesh's territory. Therefore, I don’t think that they could become a security threat to Bangladesh and the region," the expert told DW.
PM Hasina calls for 'dignified repatriation'
Bangladesh has spent a fair amount of money on improving conditions for Rohingya refugees, including on the isolated island of Bhashan Char where many have been sent to in recent months.
"My sense is that to improve its global image, which has suffered in recent years as it has taken an authoritarian turn, the Bangladesh government is keen to project a humane and soft side through its treatment of Rohingya on its soil," Kugelman said.
"That's why we're not seeing Dhaka take a more muscular and aggressive position on the Rohingya, even as it has cracked down relentlessly against the political opposition and dissent," Kugelman said.
But as Bangladesh increasingly struggles to manage its refugee influx, it appears Dhaka is taking a turn.
In June, Prime Minister Hasina urged the international community to help speed up the Rohingya repatriation process.
"We've sheltered them on humanitarian grounds but such a huge population can't be lodged for an indefinite period … I ask the world community to assist us in dignified and peaceful repatriation of the Rohingyas," the Dhaka Tribune, an English-language Bangladesh newspaper, quoted Hasina as saying in a pre-recorded speech at the IX Moscow Conference on International Security in June.
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