Burkina Faso: humanitarian aid in a dangerous spiral

Residents load down bags of rice, clothes and multiple goods collected by local charity associations for the residents of Djibo, where a supply convoy was attacked last week by a an armed group, in Ouagadougou on October 5, 2022. (Photo by Issouf SANOGO / AFP)

While the security and humanitarian situation in the Sahel region continues to deteriorate, this deterioration is particularly rapid and acute in Burkina Faso, a country that has long been considered an island of stability in a region in crisis. Humanitarian workers are having to cope with the effects of a formidable spiral.

In February 2020, in a report entitled ‘Breaking out of the spiral of violence’, the International Crisis Group stated that Burkina Faso had become the Sahelian country most targeted by recurrent jihadist attacks in 2019. It had fallen prey to them since 2015. Since then, the situation has only deteriorated, leading to a humanitarian crisis, displacement of populations, and growing frustration among citizens. This frustration crystallised shortly after the deadly ambush on 26 September in the locality of Gaskindé of a convoy (more than 200 trucks escorted by the army) carrying supplies to the town of Djibo, which is under siege (with its nearly 350,000 inhabitants) by armed groups in the north of the country. The toll of the attack was 37 killed (10 civilians and 27 soldiers), 29 wounded, including 21 soldiers, 3 people missing and significant material damage (burnt trucks). In a previous article (Humanitarian innovation put to the test in the field: the example of the Orisa water purifier), I mentioned the situation in the town of Djibo, which has been under siege by armed groups since the beginning of 2022. The conditions in this locality, where everything is lacking, have worsened. A few days after the ambush in Gaskindé, the hashtags “#PontAerienPourdjibo” (#AerialBridgeForDjibo) and “#AgirPourDjibo (#ActforDjibo), #BurkinaFaso” were launched within Burkinabé civil society. The Burkinabe army then managed to heli-lift more than 70 tonnes of food aid to the town (a derisory volume compared to the needs). The crystallisation of frustration in the country on this occasion was one of the elements, as Lieutenant-Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba acknowledged afterwards, of the coup de force that led a group of officers led by Captain Ibrahim Traoré to dismiss him. Lieutenant-Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba had himself, it should be recalled, ousted from power, in the name of the inadequacy of the fight against armed groups in the country, the president of the republic Roch Marc Christian Kaboré, last January. Captain Ibrahim Traoré, who took part in the first coup led by Lieutenant-Colonel Damiba, was formally inaugurated as President of Burkina Faso on 21 October. His term of office normally ends in July 2024, when elections are due to be held. The case of Djibo is not isolated, as 11 towns are currently under blockade, and almost 40% of the national territory is out of state control. The armed groups have put in place a real strategy of “suffocating the population”. Moreover, armed violence has caused more than 3,350 deaths since the beginning of the year, according to the NGO Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project.

The army, led by Colonel Damiba, following the January 2022 coup. (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Ibrahim Traoré, head of the interim government since 30 September 2022. @Wikicommons

The seizure of power by the group of officers led by Captain Traoré was accompanied by demonstrations calling both for the liberation of the country from foreign influence, symbolised by partnerships – particularly defence partnerships – with France, and for alliances with new partners, such as Russia, whose flags were seen among the protesters. Sustained activity on social networks seems to have fuelled this feeling. It should be noted that the French embassy was attacked by these demonstrators during the recent events.

Burkina Faso has a population of just over 20 million (of which nearly 10% are currently internally displaced), with an estimated poverty rate of 40.1%, and ranks 182nd out of 189 countries on the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Human Development Index. In this vulnerable area, the combination of a deteriorating security situation weakening institutions and forcing people to move, a deterioration in political stability; a deterioration in the climate (drought) due to global change, which is accelerating and reducing food resources; a deterioration in the population’s access to basic services and the withdrawal of state agents (closure of health centres and schools, etc.); a deterioration in the global economic situation, particularly in Africa and the Sahel, limiting access to food resources on the international or national market, and finally a gradual deterioration in humanitarian access. ); a deterioration in the global economic situation, particularly in Africa and the Sahel, limiting access to food resources on the international or national market; and finally a gradual deterioration in humanitarian access to populations in distress, as well as in the perception of these humanitarian organisations – depending on the country from which they come – by the population, can only lead to a spiral that is as fearsome as it is dangerous.

One of the characteristics of this type of situation is the disappearance of any predictability, and therefore the extreme difficulty of anticipating and programming. As Jean-Hervé Jezequel, Sahel Project Director at the International Crisis Group, puts it: “Not so long ago, we would have envisaged scenarios for a year; today we do not know what the situation will be in a few months’ time…”. This characteristic affects both the humanitarian situation itself and the response of NGOs.

Reception of water pumps in Titao by UNHAS flight @SOLIDARITES INTERNATIONAL

The humanitarian situation in Burkina Faso is primarily marked by the impact of population displacements due to insecurity. According to the GCORR (Groupe de coordination opérationnelle de réponse rapide), the increase in deadly attacks has caused more people to flee between January and July 2022 (398,471 people) than in the whole of 2021 (335,723 people). These displacements have increased by more than 7,000% since August 2018 (there were 27,571 IDPs at the time, according to the UNHCR). They are now affecting new regions, with movements noted in the Mouhoun loop, the Centre-East and the Hauts-Bassins. Along with Mozambique and Ukraine, this is one of the fastest growing displacement crises in the world. And this crisis is one of the roots of hunger: “All too often, displacement and hunger constitute a double punishment”, according to Hassane Hamadou, Country Director of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC). “People forced to flee are leaving behind their fields and livestock. Many displaced families report that they only eat once a day, so that their children can have two meals. In fact, displaced families in Burkina Faso suffer from food insecurity to a disproportionate extent: 1 in 3 displaced people are food insecure, compared to 13% of the general population. Severe food insecurity affects 12% of the displaced population, compared to 3% of the general population. Philippe Allard, director of Humanité et Inclusion in Burkina Faso, says: “We are now seeing more and more people being forced to leave not their village, but the place where they had previously found refuge… Each new displacement increases their vulnerability and undermines their resources and their mental health.” These repeated displacements particularly affect children: Benoit Delsarte, Country Director of Save the Children, points out that “For children, who make up the majority of the displaced, leaving their homes is traumatic enough, but having to flee repeatedly while their families try to survive deprives them of any chance to rebuild their lives.

A telling example of these “repeated displacement shocks” is the town of Seytenga, near the border with Niger. It was hosting more than 12,000 displaced people when it was attacked on 11 June, killing dozens. In the hours and days that followed, more than 30,000 people left Seytenga for Dori, a town that had already tripled in size since the crisis began…

Voucher distribution in Djibo. @SOLIDARITES INTERNATIONAL

Repeated displacement, climate change and global inflation are combining for the worse: according to Omer Kabore, Oxfam’s country director in Burkina Faso, “Communities are experiencing an exceptionally difficult lean season due to the food crisis resulting, in part, from last year’s disastrous agricultural season… The effects of climate change, massive displacement and the rising global cost of cereals have created the conditions for a downward spiral that has engulfed more than 3.4 million Burkinabes.

Sudden loss of assets and income, drastic decrease in agricultural production and access to food, water, health, education… Increased risk of epidemics due to massive displacement… Pressure on basic infrastructure… Displaced populations have an immediate need for household items, shelter, food, access to health, water, hygiene and sanitation, protection… and finally durable solutions, while more than 50% of the displaced have been displaced for more than a year now.

In this context of acute crisis, solidarity – which is most often the first humanitarian response to crises – has been the first reflex of Burkinabes: Antoine Sanon, Director of World Vision’s response in Burkina Faso, recalls that “Host communities across the country have shown remarkable solidarity by taking in tens of thousands of displaced people, opening up their homes and sharing their food for months, if not years… The efforts of the international community to provide life-saving assistance must be equal to theirs.

This humanitarian response is indeed trying to be up to the task, with two main difficulties, the lack of funding for emergency aid in Burkina Faso: with four months to go before the end of the year, the amounts have only reached 36% of the annual funding required despite the explosion of needs. Let us remember that these needs are massive: according to the UN, 4.9 million people need aid. In April 2022, according to the OCHA (United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs) / CONASUR (National Council for Emergency Relief and Rehabilitation) count, 1.5 million people had been displaced within the country, including 285,000 in Djibo. In October 2022, according to humanitarian organisations, the number of displaced people is now approaching 2 million. For the first time, the risk of famine has been mentioned.

Photo taken in Djibo by Sebastien Batangouna Banzouzi, WASH site manager at SOLIDARITES INTERNATIONAL in Burkina FASO @SOLIDARITES INTERNATIONAL

The second difficulty that the humanitarian response must face is the need to adapt to an unpredictable, volatile and difficult context in terms of security and access (which is inexorably shrinking and becoming more militarised), and where solutions implemented elsewhere cannot be implemented here. This adaptability is illustrated by the testimony of Philippe Dianou, head of food security and livelihoods activities at SOLIDARITÉS INTERNATIONAL in Burkina Faso: “In a blockade situation, food distributions are difficult to carry out; we therefore distribute money so that people can obtain the few resources available on the local markets”. He adds: “In Djibo, our teams have also distributed ‘discreet’ water filters, limiting the risk of vandalisation” (vandalisation by armed groups: see my previous article Humanitarian innovation tested in the field: the example of the Orisa water purifier).

In conclusion, humanitarian action in Burkina Faso is faced with a formidable spiral which poses a triple challenge, both in practice and in principle: how to overcome the impasse of access by delivering aid in blockaded areas, and, in so doing, how not to acquiesce in the deliberate creation of humanitarian needs by these same blockades? All this while risking the hostility of the parties in conflict, and possibly, because of the country of origin of such and such an NGO, of part of the population… The response to these challenges is, as is often the case, every day, by moving forward, as much as possible…

Pierre Brunet

Writer and humanitarian

Pierre Brunet

Born in 1961 in Paris to a French father and a Spanish mother, Pierre Brunet found his first vocation as a freelance journalist. In 1994, he crossed paths with humanitarian work and volunteered in Rwanda, which was devastated by genocide. In early 1995, he left on a humanitarian mission in Bosnia-Herzegovina, then torn apart by civil war. There he took on the responsibilities of programme coordinator in Sarajevo, then head of mission.

When he returned to France at the end of 1996, he joined the headquarters of the French NGO SOLIDARITES INTERNATIONAL, for which he had been on mission. He will be in charge of communication and fundraising, while returning to the field, as in Afghanistan in 2003, and starting to write… In 2011, while remaining involved in humanitarian work, he commits himself totally to writing, and devotes an essential part of his time to his vocation as a writer.

Pierre Brunet is Vice-President of the association SOLIDARITES INTERNATIONAL. He has been in the field in North-East Syria, in the Calais “jungle” in November 2015, and in Greece and Macedonia with migrants in April 2016.

Pierre Brunet’s novels are published by Calmann-Lévy:

January 2006: publication of his first novel “Barnum” by Calmann-Lévy, a story born from his humanitarian experience.
September 2008: publication of his second novel, “JAB”, the story of a little Spanish orphan girl who grew up in Morocco and becomes a professional boxer as an adult.
March 2014: release of her third novel “Fenicia”, inspired by the life of her mother, a little Spanish orphan during the civil war, refugee in France, later an anarchist activist, seductress, who died in a psychiatric institute at the age of 31.
End of August 2017: release of his fourth novel “Le triangle d’incertitude”, in which the author “returns” again, as in “Barnum” to Rwanda in 1994, to evoke the trauma of a French officer during Operation Turquoise.

In parallel to his work as a writer, Pierre Brunet works as a co-writer of synopses for television series and feature films, in partnership with various production companies. He also collaborates with various magazines by publishing columns or articles, particularly on international news.

Humanitarian innovation tested in the field: the example of the Orisa water purifier

Humanitarian action is made up of commitment and concrete responses, without which it is only words. In order to provide these responses in an efficient manner, and to meet the needs of the people being helped, innovative technical solutions play a decisive role, multiplying the time saved, the number of people assisted, and the impact of the aid. This notion of innovation is present in all areas of our work (food security, health, shelter, resilience, etc.), and of course in the technical area of WASH (water, hygiene and sanitation).

The paradigm shift sometimes consists, without revolutionizing the technical solution itself, in providing actors and beneficiaries in the field with an easy-to-use, reliable response adapted to the entire spectrum of interventions, from emergency to development, in terms of individual, family or collective access to safe drinking water. This is the idea behind the Orisa water purifier proposed by Fonto De Vivo, a company co-founded by Anthony Cailleau, a specialist in R&D, and David Monnier, a former humanitarian who has worked for 14 years in a variety of difficult areas: Liberia, Iraq, Comoros, Guinea, Afghanistan… He was able to measure the need for easy and safe means of access to water for populations impacted by security, climate or epidemic crises. The development of the Orisa purifier was done, starting in 2017, in partnership with researchers from the universities of Nantes (where Anthony Cailleau and David Monnier met, and decided to found Fonto De Vivo) and Vendée. A focus group of six French NGOs was set up to specify their needs in terms of purification and related logistics. Then a design firm in Nantes and a design office in Vendée specialized in plastics finalized the product, which started to be marketed in 2021.

In concrete terms, it is a portable and autonomous purifier, modest in size (42.5 x 17 x 12cm), weighing 2.1 kg, operating by manual pumping, intuitive, and conforming to the quality guidelines for drinking water of the WHO. The ultrafiltration is done by hollow fiber membranes through which the water passes. The purifier is adaptable to different types of containers, tanks, and treats surface water (wells, streams…).

The test bed for a tool intended for humanitarian use is its implementation in the field. In this respect, the intervention carried out by the NGO SOLIDARITES INTERNATIONAL in Djibo, Burkina-Faso (emergency program), is significant, as for the potential of the Orisa purifier. The particular context of the town of Djibo, which is under blockade by armed groups, has transformed a critical situation into a humanitarian emergency. Even before the blockade, Djibo was affected by the increasing scarcity of water resources due to climate change, and was home to a large number of displaced persons in the Sahel. As of March 31, 2002, according to the Burkinabe government agency that registers internally displaced persons, there were 283,428 displaced persons in Djibo, out of a resident population of approximately 50,000. In January, armed groups forcibly displaced people from surrounding villages; according to OCHA, 36,532 people arrived in less than two months. The tension on drinking water resources was at its highest. Then the blockade was declared on February 17, laying mines on the access roads and attacking any vehicle or person attempting to enter or leave the town. Finally, armed groups sabotaged water points and water access infrastructure between February 21 and March 13: destruction of a generator in the Office National de l’Eau et de l’Assainissement network (which supplied 2/3 of the population), two of the three generators supplying the pumping stations serving the public network (reducing water production by 80%), and six of the twelve solar-powered adductions, put out of service by shooting at the storage tanks… According to estimates by the WASH cluster, at least 220. According to WASH Cluster estimates, at least 220,000 people have lost access to protected water sources as of 3/17/2022 due to these attacks. The population of Djibo, as Sébastien Batangouna, EHA SOLIDARITES INTERNATIONAL site manager in Burkina Faso, recounts, “was reduced to digging makeshift holes in the dry dam bed by hand, extracting insufficient quantities of murky water, or to drawing from a few wells or stagnant surface water. In addition, there have been numerous attacks on people collecting water. Access to water has become an issue of pressure on the population for armed groups.

In this context, and in a city that is only connected by helicopter to the rest of the country, the traditional WASH responses, as explained by Lise Florin, WASH Coordinator at SOLIDARITES INTERNATIONAL in Burkina Faso, are no longer adapted: “Too dangerous to repair vandalized water points and generators, water-trucking unthinkable because water points inaccessible and fuel supply limited by the blockade, installation of bladders (flexible tanks) ruled out, because a treatment station would have been too visible and pumping difficult in makeshift holes, finally limited access to the dam for security reasons.” The only remaining solution was to treat homes and/or communities, using unconventional water sources (surface water scattered throughout the city) if necessary. A “discreet” and safe solution, therefore, which consisted in “diverting”, to use the words of Baptiste LECUYOT, Head of the EHA – Technical Expertise and Quality of Programs Unit at SOLIDARITES INTERNATIONAL headquarters, “the use of purifiers normally more suitable for home water treatment, by setting up collective filtration points where people would come to fetch filtered water, without having to set up larger facilities“. 242 community volunteers were recruited and trained, 64 filtration points were set up, and a mobile team of 50 volunteers was assigned to go out and educate households on hygiene and home water treatment. To date, 500 Orisa purifiers have been deployed in Djibo by SOLIDARITES INTERNATIONAL.

Even if the intervention of SOLIDARITES INTERNATIONAL in Djibo is still ongoing, we can already see that, as Sebastien Batangouna points out, “The handling, use, maintenance and repair of the Orisa purifiers has been easy, as has the training of the national staff and day laborers. This simplicity was reinforced, as Lise Florin reminds us, “by the tutorials made available on the Internet by Fonto De Vivo“. Lise Florin adds that, in addition to their discretion and simplicity, “these purifiers have proven to be faster than the chemical “PUR” treatment: between 120 L/H and 180 L/H for ORISA filters, compared to 40 L/H for PUR. Also less voluminous: 4 times less 20L buckets are needed to cover the same number of beneficiaries, transportation and storage are therefore easier and less expensive. Finally, the water is of better quality for the people rescued, because it is simply chlorinated after filtration to avoid recontamination of the water during transport/storage. In Djibo, these purifiers have been used intensively, from 4 to 6 hours a day, producing about 100 L/H each, or 4 days’ worth of water for a “normal” family. Of course, pumping requires a minimum of physical strength, but given the context and the emergency, this response proved to be the most relevant, efficient and discreet. It should be mentioned, however, that non-compliance (related to a supplier) was found in Djibo, on a number of Orisa purifiers. The problem was immediately recognized by Fonto De Vivo, which implemented solutions, as the purifiers were repairable: new parts (rings) were tested and sent to Burkina Faso by express mail; and, in addition to the stock of membranes already on site, new ones are being sent to replace those that had a problem (with the remote support of Fonto De Vivo, and knowing that these membranes must be changed anyway after a certain time of use)

SOLIDARITES INTERNATIONAL (which had already used the Orisa purifier in Niger in a limited way in health centers), has also deployed it in Haiti in schools, and plans to use it in Mali for emergency response. Allassane Traore, EHA Dakar coordinator, emphasizes that this tool is interesting “for interventions with transhumant populations or those affected by recurrent displacements, often forgotten by humanitarian responses and particularly at risk when it comes to access to drinking water.

In addition to SOLIDARITES INTERNATIONAL, other NGOs use the Orisa purifier, such as MSF in Ukraine (in health care facilities) and in Madagascar (with communities). Its very good bacterial (99.999999%, i.e. LOG 8) and viral (99.999%, i.e. LOG 5) filtration performances make it an obvious infection prevention tool, but, as Jérôme Leglise, Water and Sanitation Referent at MSF’s Operational Support Pole, points out, a specific technical innovation was of particular interest to MSF: its backwashing system using purified water, limiting contamination during washing. The medical NGO considers this purifier to be particularly suitable for exploratory missions, small bases or isolated health structures, specific communities far from urban networks, and people at risk (pregnant women, immunocompromised people, young children, measles cases) in a post-consultation or hospitalization “discharge kit”.

Finally, the CDCS (Crisis and Support Center of the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs) has ordered 405 Orisa purifiers, in order to build up a contingency stock to respond to potential emergencies (natural disasters, conflicts, pandemics…).

In the end, this tool shows that, between the challenge of developing a product and the test of the field, humanitarian innovation is – also – a form of risk-taking… necessary…

Pierre Brunet

Writter and Humanitarian

To go further :

Orisa’s technical note : FR-Orisa-Water-Filters-Fonto-de-vivo-technique

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Born in 1961 in Paris to a French father and a Spanish mother, Pierre Brunet found his first vocation as a freelance journalist. In 1994, he crossed paths with humanitarian aid and volunteered in Rwanda, which had been devastated by genocide. In early 1995, he left on a humanitarian mission in Bosnia-Herzegovina, then torn by civil war. There he took on the responsibilities of program coordinator in Sarajevo, then head of mission.

Upon his return to France at the end of 1996, he joined the headquarters of the French NGO SOLIDARITES INTERNATIONAL, for which he had gone on mission. He will be in charge of communication and fundraising, while returning to the field, as in Afghanistan in 2003, and starting to write… In 2011, while remaining involved in humanitarian work, he commits himself totally to writing, and devotes an essential part of his time to his vocation of writer.

Pierre Brunet is Vice-President of the association SOLIDARITES INTERNATIONAL. He has been in the field in the North-East of Syria, in the “jungle” of Calais in November 2015, and in Greece and Macedonia with migrants in April 2016.

Pierre Brunet’s novels are published by Calmann-Lévy:

January 2006: publication of his first novel “Barnum” by Calmann-Lévy, a story born from his humanitarian experience.
September 2008 : publication of his second novel ” JAB “, the story of a little Spanish orphan girl who grew up in Morocco and who will become a professional boxer as an adult.
March 2014: release of his third novel “Fenicia”, inspired by the life of his mother, a little Spanish orphan during the civil war, refugee in France, later an anarchist activist, seductress, who died in a psychiatric institute at 31 years old.
End of August 2017: release of his fourth novel “The Triangle of Uncertainty”, in which the author “returns” again, as in “Barnum” to Rwanda in 1994, to evoke the trauma of a French officer during Operation Turquoise.

In parallel to his work as a writer, Pierre Brunet works as a co-writer of synopses for television series or feature films, in partnership with various production companies. He also collaborates with various magazines by publishing columns or articles, particularly on international news.

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