ReliefWeb

Highlights

• The security situation continues to deteriorate throughout the country. In December 36 security incidents were reported, 588 incidents for the entire year with 1,082 people (29 children) killed.

• The number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) officially reported is 560,033 (OCHA, 9 December 2019), more than six-fold increase compared to early 2019.

• Nearly 1.2 million people remain affected by the lack of health and nutrition services, as 95 health centers are still closed and 135 are operating at a reduced capacity (Ministry of Health, 9 December 2019).

• 2,087 schools remain closed, affecting 303,090 students and 9,264 teachers (MENAPLN, 19 December 2019). Two schools were burned down by unidentified armed individuals in December in the Boucle du Mouhoun region (the College of Bonou and the Bouni primary school)

• On 11 December, the Emergency Relief Coordinator (ERC) confirmed the activation of 7 clusters in Burkina Faso. UNICEF leads the Nutrition, Education, WASH clusters and the Area of Responsibility for Child Protection (under the protection cluster)

Situation in Numbers

855,000
children in need of humanitarian assistance

1,500,000
people in need
(OCHA July 2019)

560,033
Internally displaced persons (IDPs) registered
300,004 Children (53.57%)

1,192,173
# people without access to health
(MOH, 9 December 2019)

UNICEF Appeal 2019
US$47.6 million

Funding Overview and Partnerships

In line with the 2019 UNICEF’s Humanitarian Action for Children appeal (HAC) and the revised 2019 Burkina Faso Humanitarian Response Plan (OCHA, July 2019), the funding gap as of the end of December 2019 was 47 per cent, a significant decrease (24 per cent) compared to the end of November. During the reporting period, in fact UNICEF-Burkina Faso received US$11.4 million from DFID, Sweden, Danida, which will contribute to the implementation of the HAC 2020. UNICEF Burkina Faso would like to recognize the generous contributions from these key partners, as well as those who have already contribute along the year 2019, including Japan, Sweden, Austria, CERF, USAID and ECHO. Also, UNICEF recognizes the flexible and unearmarked funding received through the Global Humanitarian Thematic Fund.

In 2019, given the funding gap and the exceptional rapidity in the aggravation of the crisis, UNICEF had to reorient some of its own and other donors’ regular resources to implement the emergency response. In education, in consultation and with the approval of the donors concerned, some funds that had been allocated for the preparation of schools to respond to the crisis were used to extend the emergency interventions to newly affected areas such as the Centre East. This was the case, in particular, of the regular funding for the Safe School for Education programme of the Swiss Cooperation’. In health, some regular resources were used to purchase critical supplies, particularly mosquito nets and for emergency response.

Situation Overview & Humanitarian Needs

Attacks against civilians have continued during the reporting period, leading to new waves of displacements. Registration of new IDP is regularly conducted by the Conseil national de secours d’urgence et de rehabilitation (CONASUR), the government institution in charge of data collection and humanitarian response. As of 9 December 2019, 560,033 IDPs (53.7 per cent children) had been registered in the country. While all the 13 regions are now hosting IDPs, the most affected regions remain the Centre-Nord (48.3 per cent) and Sahel (37.8 per cent).

In 2019, the number of IDPs had increased exponentially, from 82,000 in January 2019 to 560,000 in December 2019, more than six-fold. Only 3 out of 13 regions (Centre-Nord, Sahel and Nord) were hosting IDPs in January 2019.

As of 31 December, 95 out 1,140 health centres (8.3 per cent) in emergency-affected regions were closed. An estimated 1,192,173 people have no or limited access to nutrition and health services. The Sahel region continues to register the highest number of closed health centres, 52 out of 119 (44 per cent).

Djibo health district (Sahel region) is the most affected, with 26 closed health centres and the remaining 22 working with minimum operations. Out of the 135 health centres operating at reduced or minimum services, 38 are in the Sahel region, 26 in the Boucle du Mouhoun, 23 in the Nord, 21 in the Centre-Nord, 19 in the Est and 8 in Centre-Est regions.

On December 11, 2019, the Emergency Relief Coordinator confirmed the activation of 7 clusters in Burkina Faso. UNICEF is the lead agency for the Nutrition, Education, WASH clusters, and the Area of Responsibility (AoR) for Child Protection. The Humanitarian Country Team (HCT) closely monitors the activation of the clusters to ensure that lead agencies respect their commitments through the recruitment of dedicated coordinators and information management specialists, as well as operational capacity in the five target regions within three months from the activation.