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Burkina Faso: The stadium clinic treating survivors of an unseen conflict

19 Oct 22

Burkina Faso: The stadium clinic treating survivors of an unseen conflict

Burkina Faso has silently become the epicentre of a major crisis in Africa’s Sahel region.

Since 2018, the country has been plagued by violent clashes that have led to the forced displacement of over 1.5 million people – events that have been largely overlooked internationally.

However, in recent months, Médecins Sans Frontières / Doctors Without Borders (MSF) teams have warned that the humanitarian situation in the north and east has fast deteriorated, with some communities cut off altogether by armed blockades.

In Kaya, a town of 55,000 people just north of the capital Ouagadougou, insecurity has forced many people from surrounding villages to seek safety in an open-air sports stadium.

Here, MSF runs a mobile clinic providing vital basic healthcare to displaced people – many needing treatment for respiratory infections, diarrhoeal diseases and malaria. Our teams are also handing out essential ‘non-food items’ and working to get better shelter for those exposed to the elements.

In November last year, an MSF clinic in the nearby village of Foubé was burnt down during an attack on a police building.

MSF, conflict and war

In conflict zones, we do not take sides. We provide medical care based on needs alone and try to reach the people who need help the most.

If warring parties see aid organisations as being on one side of a conflict, we are less likely to gain access to those in need and more likely to be attacked.

One of the ways in which we are able to demonstrate our independence is with our private funding – we do not accept money from governments.