DRA ACM Burkina Faso 2021 The past two years have seen a sharp deterioration in the security situation across Burkina Faso’s northern and eastern regions (large parts of the East, Central North, North, Sahel and Boucle du Mouhoun regions) due to the presence  of  non-state  armed  groups –many  with  cross-border  ties  to  extremists  groups  or  movements  in neighboring  Mali  and  Niger  (OCHA  Situation  Report,  November  2021).  Armed  violence  has  caused  massive population displacements, while civilians are increasingly targeted. A state of emergency remains in 14 out of the 45 provinces.
FEWS NET(October 2021) reports that the third quarter of 2021 saw the number of security incidents in the north and east more than double compared to the same period in 2020 (Figure 1). The number of security incidents links up with the increasing number of people in need and/or food insecure. Recent REACH monitoring confirms that insecurity (presence of armed groups / community tensions) remained the main push factor that forced IDPs to flee their home locality. The security incidents clearly are the trigger for people to leave their homes and result in a steadily increasing number of displaced.
According to the latestCONASUR Registration of IDPs (bulletin No10/2021 published 11thDecember 2021[1]) the number  of  IDPs  continues  to grow  due  to  an upsurge  in  violence.  Per  31  October  2021  Burkina  had  1,481,701 Internally Displaced Persons (= severely affected). Compared to the situation of 30 April 2021 (1,218,754 IDPs) this is an increase of 262,947 IDPs (22%) in 6 months’ time.
The  conflict  and  violence,  overlaid  across  parts  of  the  country  considered  most  fragile  due  to  political marginalization, climate variability and climate change and lack of economic opportunity, particularly for youth, have resulted in the emergence of an unprecedented humanitarian emergency in a country more traditionally subject to chronic food and nutritional insecurity. The conflict and violence have led to the displacement of more than  one  million  people  in  just  two  years  and  has  left  3.5 million  people  in  need  of  assistance –a 60  per  cent increase from January 2020 to January 2021.
Despite  relatively  favorable  rains  in  2020,  food  insecurity  and  malnutrition  remain  at  alarming  levels,  most worrying in the areas affected by insecurity. In 2020, Burkina Faso saw its worst food security situation in more than a decade, with re-emergence of phase 4 conditions in two provinces and an estimated 11,000 people at risk of “catastrophic/famine” conditions. At the outset of 2021, the immediate risk of phase 5 conditions has abated, but more than 250,000 people remain in phase 4 “emergency” conditions.
WFPwarns that the outcome of the 2021/2022 agricultural season is worrying. Subsequent dry periods negatively impacted nearly 200,000 hectares of cereal and cash crops. 84 percent of these areas are found in the conflict-prone Nord, Centre Nord and Sahel regions.
With loss of usual sources of food and income, poor households in the north are unable to meet basic food needs. According  to FEWS  NET,  in  hard-to-reach  communes  in  Oudalan  province,  IDPs  will  be  exposed  to  Emergency food insecurity (IPC Phase 4 ) between October 2021 and May 2022. The  overarching  objective  of  the  JR  is  to  provide 104.851affected  people with  life-saving  and  life-sustaining goods and services. The DRA partners have designed their response based on needs and gaps in line with cluster recommendations, their technical expertise and complementarity with other interventions to maximize impact. The  response  is  a  multi-sector  approach  with  holistic  WASH,  Health,  Food  Security  and  Livelihoods  (FSL),  and Protection programs supported by MPC. The response will contribute amongst others to the following objectives from the HRP (April, 2021):