West Africa: The double burden of the humanitarian and health crisis in Burkina Faso

Jeanne S. benefits from the help of Plan International Burkina Faso through her sponsored son. Internally displaced person from the Centre-North region, she is worried about the COVID19 pandemic: "I heard about a disease that kills. All we know is that we have to wash our hands with soap to protect ourself. This worries me because we already have problems with attacks and this is now adding to them". Jeanne S. is one of some 387,000 internally displaced people in Centre-North, the region most affected by displacement in Burkina Faso. The town of Kongoussi alone, where Jeanne and her children have settled, has a total of nearly 21,000 displaced people, including about 12,500 children.

Since mid-March, the Burkinabe localities affected by the pandemic have been quarantined and access to the sites of the displaced has become more difficult for humanitarian actors. Jeanne S. talks about the measures taken by the government to limit the spread: "I have noticed that schools have been closed, and we can no longer come and go as we used to. I know that there is also a curfew. Because it is to protect us from the disease, we accept it and we pray for God to help us".

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