- Title: Burkina Faso's displaced unable to vote amid growing insurgency
- Date: 19th November 2020
- Summary: PAZANI, OUTSIDE OUAGADOUGOU, BURKINA FASO (NOVEMBER 18, 2020) (REUTERS) DJENABA SAWADOGO, 20-YEAR OLD MOTHER FROM SILGADJI, SOUM PROVINCE, WHO WAS FORCED OUT OF HER HOME IN 2019 FOLLOWING JIHADIST ATTACKS IN WHICH A DOZEN PEOPLE WERE KILLED, NOW DISPLACED AND LIVING IN PAZANI, WALKING WITH BUCKET OF SAND ON HER HEAD CHILDREN WITH WATER CANS ON SIDE OF THE ROAD CHILDREN AND A FRUIT STALL ON THE SIDE OF THE ROAD AT THE CAMP WHERE THE DISPLACED LIVE IN RUDIMENTARY HOMES BUILT SHORTLY AFTER THEY ARRIVED SAWADOGO WALKING PAST RUDIMENTARY HOMES WHERE DISPLACED NOW LIVE (SOUNDBITE) (Moree) DJENABA SAWADOGO, 20-YEAR OLD MOTHER, DISPLACED, SAYING: "This sand that I am gathering here, we sell it. This is how we survive. With the money from selling sand, we can buy wood, water, food and soap. We don't receive any assistance. This is what we do to feed ourselves." SAWADOGO'S BABY SAWADOGO GATHERING SAND WHILE HOLDING HER BABY SAWADOGO'S FACE SAWADOGO'S HOUSE WHERE SHE LIVES WITH HER FAMILY DISPLACED WOMAN AND CHILD LYING ON THE GROUND IN FRONT OF A WALL WOMAN'S FACE CHILD (SOUNDBITE) (Moree) DJENABA SAWADOGO, 20-YEAR OLD MOTHER, DISPLACED, SAYING: "When we ran away we left everything behind, all our documents, in Silgadji. I don't have any papers and so I can't vote." (SOUNDBITE) (Moree) DJENABA SAWADOGO, 20-YEAR OLD MOTHER, DISPLACED, SITTING NEXT TO HER MOTHER (LEFT) SAYING: "What we want is for the elected president to help us get peace back so we can go back home safely." ALI TAPSOBA, DISPLACED, PLAYING WITH SAWADOGO'S BABY IN HER ARMS AND CHILDREN SITTING AROUND (SOUNDBITE) (French) ALI TAPSOBA, 33-YEARS OLD, DISPLACED FROM SILGADJI, SOUM REGION, SAYING: "We are not good, really, because we should also have the right to vote. The president is for all of us, we are all Burkinabé and yet many can't vote so, really, we are not proud." DISPLACED WOMEN SITTING BY A WALL SOUNDBITE (Moree) YOMPOKO ILBOUDO, 73-YEAR OLD, DISPLACED FROM SILGADJI, SHE WALKED TO OUAGADOUGOU WITH A HORSE AND CART FOR FIVE DAYS BEFORE FINDING A VEHICLE TO GET HER TO PAZANI, SAYING: "They first came to burn the motorbikes in the village and attacked the bars. Then they came back to Silgadji, killed the pastor and six other people. Two weeks later they came to kill the Imam and 13 other people. Three days later, they killed a neighbour who was on his way to the market. That is why we left the area." SAWADOGO'S FATHER REPAIRING A BICYCLE SPOKES ON THE BICYCLE SAWADOGO'S FATHER WITH THE BICYCLE (SOUNDBITE) (French) ALI TAPSOBA, 33-YEARS OLD, DISPLACED FROM SILGADJI, IN THE SOUM REGION, SAYING: "What we expect after the 22nd of November is that the new leader, the one who wins, and may the best of them win, we want someone who can ensure our security across the entire Burkina (Faso), so we can go home." OUAGADOUGOU, BURKINA FASO (NOVEMBER 16, 2020) (REUTERS) NEWTON AHMED BARRY, PRESIDENT OF THE INDEPENDENT NATIONAL ELECTORAL COMMISSION (CENI) SITTING WITH ELECTORAL STAFF AND MATERIALS IN CENI CENTRE ELECTORAL STAFF PILING UP BALLOTS BOOKLET READING, (French): "Electoral Code and Texts' November 2020" PAPER TO USE AT POLLING STATIONS READING, (French): "Ballot Box Presidential Election" BALLOT BOXES PEOPLE PREPARING ELECTION MATERIALS (SOUNDBITE) (French) NEWTON AHMED BARRY, PRESIDENT OF THE INDEPENDENT NATIONAL ELECTORAL COMMISSION (CENI), SAYING: "We will not go in the zones where secuity issues have reached a certain level of seriousness. Following the work of the technical committee to secure the campaign and the electoral operations, there are 15 districts we won't be able to go to, there are 860 villages that are inaccessible. That is in the epicentre of the security crisis that we find ourselves in today. It represents about nine percent of the territory that is therefore not accessible."
- Embargoed: 3rd December 2020 20:49
- Keywords: disenfranchised voters displaced elections electoral commission jihadist insurgency presidential poll voting
- Location: OUAGADOUGOU, PAZANI, YIRGOU, BARSALOGHO AND PISSILA, BURKINA FASO
- City: OUAGADOUGOU, PAZANI, YIRGOU, BARSALOGHO AND PISSILA, BURKINA FASO
- Country: Burkina Faso
- Topics: Africa,Government/Politics,Elections/Voting
- Reuters ID: LVA001D5DFO07
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Djenaba Sawadogo is one of hundreds of thousands of Burkina Faso's voters who will not go to the polls on Sunday (November 22) to choose the country's next president and national assembly representatives.
Originally from a farming family in Silgadji, in the Soum region, where she used to raise cattle and sell cakes, 20-year-old Sawadogo fled her village in June 2019 when jihadists repeatedly attacked, setting fire to vehicles and bars and killing the pastor, the imam and dozens of her neighbours.
Today she gathers and sells sand in an unofficial makeshift camp in the Pazani district, just outside the capital Ouagadougou where she lives with her husband, her baby son and various members of her family.
Sawadogo left everything behind when she fled the village including her electoral card and official papers.
Her mother wears a T-shirt with President Roch Kabore's face and his MPP party logo emblazoned across it yet she won't be voting for anyone either.
Another Silgadji refugee, 73-year old Yompoko Ilboudo, said she had to walk for five days before finding a vehicle to bring her to Pazani. Unlike her neighbours though, she does have her papers and will go to vote on Sunday.
In Pazani, 33-year old Ali Tapsoba, has become the spokesman for the displaced at this makeshift camp. There are 2,650 refugees living on this barren patch of dusty land.
He is the voice for the young and old who have lost their home, their livelihood and now their right to vote.
During the presidential campaign, Kabore has promised to restore security in the country that was once a haven of peace after the popular uprising that deposed president Blaise Compaore after a 27 year-rule.
But sitting in the Sahel triangle with neighbouring Mali and Niger, it has suffered from repeated attacks since 2016, particularly in the northern border areas and the centre and has become one of the most dangerous countries in the world.
More than one million people have been displaced by the violence, one in every 20 inhabitants.
In recent years, militant groups with links to al Qaeda and Islamic State have killed hundreds of soldiers and civilians and stoked ethnic conflict, part of a wider security crisis across West Africa's Sahel region.
Last week, 14 soldiers were killed in an ambush by suspected Islamist militants, just days before the election. Last month, 30 civilians were killed in separate attacks in the north.
When neighbouring Mali held legislative elections, large swathes of the country did not vote because of jihadist violence.
Months later, protests erupted, calling on the dissolution of the national assembly and new elections. Weeks later, there was a military coup.
In January, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) said the displacement crisis in Burkina Faso was the fastest growing in the world with the number of people losing their homes doubling in a year.
In October, World Food Programme President David Beasley said - after the organisation won the Nobel Peace Prize - that he was especially concerned about Burkina Faso, where more than 3 million people are in need of emergency food aid and some 11,000 are facing famine.
On Tuesday (November 17), United Nations aid chief Mark Lowcock said he would use $100 million from the world body's emergency fund to help seven countries try to avert famine fuelled by conflict, spiralling economies, climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic.
From the total, $6 million will be spent in Burkina Faso.
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