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Machetes, firearms, smoke from burning houses: these are the last memories of many displaced people after being forced to flee their villages in the North-Central region of Burkina Faso. "I was in the bush, it's there that they caught me," says 17-year-old Dicko. "They wanted to know where my friends were hiding. But I was all alone. Gunmen attacked him with a machete, wounded his ear and head and knocked him out. "Once left, I ran to the village to find my parents. Our house was burned! But luckily we were together with my family. We walked to the camp here in Barsalogho.
After the violence that erupted in the north-central and Sahel regions of Burkina Faso in early 2019, thousands of people have no choice but to flee their homes, leaving their property behind. . They sought refuge in the neighboring villages of Foubé, Barsalogho, Arbinda, Kelbo and Déou. The hurried camp for displaced people in Barsalogho now hosts more than 900 people, including Dicko and his family. After their escape, Dicko's mother cleaned her wounds with warm water. Once the family arrived in the camp, a medical team supported by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) cleaned the wounds with antiseptic solutions to prevent infection.
In the Barsalogho camp, families live in tents set up by the Government of Burkina Faso and prepare meals with pots and pans donated by the community and local authorities. Bags of corn and other foods were offered. But the water supply is a problem in the camp because there is no natural spring nearby. Instead, tankers travel daily to the nearest town, Kaya, more than an hour from the camp, to bring water for distribution.
Other sites where IDPs have gathered are even more degraded. In Foubé, for example, many tents have still not been installed. The lack of adequate shelter has forced some 8,000 people to live in extremely close areas, which increases the risk of epidemics such as measles.
MSF has sent emergency teams to support local intervention in Foubé and Barsalogho camps, but significant needs remain. MSF works with local health teams to reduce the risk of measles and other epidemics. More than 2,100 children were vaccinated against measles in Foubé on the first day of a campaign to vaccinate 7,000 people. 600 more were vaccinated in Barsalogho. Every week, the medical teams supported by MSF consult more than 300 people in Foubé and more than 200 in Barsalogho, most of whom suffer from respiratory infections, malaria and parasitic diseases.
Despite this response, more help is needed to improve living conditions in the camps and provide adequate care for people like Dicko and his family. "All actors involved in the response must ensure that displaced populations have access to safe drinking water and that the camps maintain a certain level of hygiene," said Idrissa Compaoré, medical coordinator. MSF in Burkina Faso. "Essential drugs must be available in sufficient quantities and stored away from heat and dust."
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