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MSF AUSTRALIA | BURKINA FASO 2022
The security situation continued to deteriorate in Burkina Faso in 2022, as conflict between the government and non-state armed groups intensified.
The fighting caused waves of displacement and exacerbated the already dire medical needs. Many cities were besieged by armed groups, sometimes forcing MSF to suspend or cease activities altogether.
After armed groups took control of Djibo, where our teams were supporting basic healthcare, surgery and nutrition, as well as the provision of water, land access soon became virtually impossible. Food and medical supplies could only be delivered by military convoys or by air, causing severe shortages and a steep rise in prices. Health facilities in the country also faced staff shortages as many medical professionals fled the violence. Threats against our staff and patients, increased checkpoints and restrictions on our supply lines by armed groups forced us to close projects in Centre-Nord and Sahel regions during the year.
Nevertheless, our teams continued to deliver humanitarian and medical assistance to displaced people and host communities in the Centre-Nord towns of Barsalogho, Kaya and Djibo, and in Dédougou, Tougan and Nouna in the Boucle du Mouhoun district, focusing on tackling major health issues, including malaria, outbreaks of measles and other infectious diseases, mental health and sexual violence, and supporting access to community-based basic and specialist healthcare.
A significant proportion of the consultations were carried out by community health workers, whom MSF has trained to treat the most common diseases and conditions, such as malaria, diarrhoea and acute respiratory infections. Our teams also trucked in water and constructed and renovated boreholes to address the severe water shortage, which has been compounded by the ongoing conflict. In Kaya, MSF provided medical and humanitarian assistance with a mobile clinic and the distribution of non-food item kits to internally displaced people at the regional stadium, which became an open-air camp, where people slept out unsheltered and were exposed to respiratory and diarrheal diseases and malaria.
KEY ACTIVITIES
Basic healthcare, malaria care, mental health, nutrition, sexual violence care, surgery
