GPC Coordinator, William Chemaly, provides a first hand account of the rapidly escalating humanitarian crisis in northern Burkina Faso
Standing in the dust of Dori, the capital of Sahel province in Burkina Faso, the view is plain – climate change is crippling livelihoods, exacerbating food insecurity, and intensifying armed conflict and violent extremism. In January 2020, I joined my colleagues in charge of global humanitarian coordination of food security, shelter, water and sanitation aid in Centre-Nord and Sahel provinces of Burkina Faso. The magnitude of the humanitarian protection crisis, and clear risk of further deterioration, was confronting. Burkina Faso needs immediate at-scale humanitarian attention, as well as, retention and increase of active peace and development programmes in accessible areas.