Tag Archives: Mali

Burkina Faso is the world’s most neglected crisis

For the first time, Burkina Faso tops the list of the world’s most neglected displacement crises, according to a new report from the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC). Redirection of aid and attention towards Ukraine has increased neglect of some of the world’s most vulnerable people.  

The annual list of neglected displacement crises is based on three criteria: lack of humanitarian funding, lack of media attention, and a lack of international political and diplomatic initiatives. The crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo ranks second, having appeared first or second on the list every year since its inception seven years ago. Colombia, Sudan, and Venezuela follow in this grim ranking. 

“Tell the world we have suffered. We have suffered a lot. Our neighbours have suffered. Our friends have suffered. Our relatives have suffered. We lost many. Most of them killed. I am thanking God because none of my family was left there, and we are all in safety. I do not want to return, but I am asking God for peace, for peace in this place,” says Halimata (35). Together with her family, she fled fighting in the east of Burkina Faso and sought safety in Kaya.

“Neglect is a choice – that millions of displaced people are cast aside year after year without the support and resources they so desperately need is not inevitable,” said Jan Egeland, NRC’s Secretary General. 

“The powerful response to the suffering inflicted by the war in Ukraine demonstrated what the world can deliver for people in need. Political action for Ukrainians has been impactful and swift, borders kept open, funding plenty, and media coverage extensive. Those in power need to show the same humanity towards people affected by crises in places such as Burkina Faso and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.” 

More than five times more articles were written about the Ukrainian displacement crisis last year than about all the world’s ten most neglected crises in total. For every dollar raised per person in need in Ukraine in 2022, just 25 cents were raised per person in need across the world’s ten most neglected crises.  

The Democratic Republic of Congo continued to make the list this year. Patient* 43, lives with his 6 children in the town of Bule, Djugu Territory, Ituri Province, DR Congo. ‘We fled in February 2021. We’ve moved around a lot, and now we are trying to build a new home. During the war, we’ve never had enough to eat, and we have no money to buy medicines if the children get sick. We used to live in a beautiful village, and had a big house. Now, all we have is this shelter. When it rains a lot, the water will come through the roof’. *Name changed for security reasons.

The repeated warnings of increased disparity due to the reallocation of resources to the Ukraine response have now become reality. The redirection of a large amount of aid money towards Ukraine and towards hosting refugees in donor countries means that many crises have seen a drop in assistance, despite growing needs. Total aid to Africa, where we find seven out of the ten most neglected crises, was 34 billion USD in 2022, representing a drop of 7.4 per cent compared to 2021.  

The Ukraine crisis also contributed to an increase in food insecurity in many of the countries featured in the report, worsening already dire crises, and increasing the number of people in need. 

“The world has failed to support the most vulnerable, but this can be reversed. The lives of millions of people suffering in silence can improve, if funding and resources are allocated based on need, not geopolitical interest, and media headlines of the day,” said Egeland. “Last year the gap between what was needed and what was delivered in humanitarian assistance was 22 billion USD. This is a huge sum of money, but no more than Europeans spend on ice cream a year. We need donors to increase support and new donor countries to step up to share responsibility.” 

Burkina Faso’s decline since the crisis broke out five years ago has been swift and devastating. More than 2 million people have been forced to flee their homes, and nearly a quarter of the population now requires humanitarian aid. Across the country, 800,000 people are living in areas under blockade by armed groups where they have no access to even basic services. The situation is increasingly dire with some people forced to eat leaves to survive. 

Maïga Abibou is an Internally Displaced Person (IDP) from Wapassi in the North region of Burkina Faso. Because of rampant insecurity in Wapassi, she made her first move with her family to Naoubé, a village in the Center North. A few months later, she fled again with her family to Louda, a village located a few kilometers from Kaya. There, she has been living with dozens of other families out in the open for over a month while hoping to get shelters soon before the rainy season begins in Burkina Faso. “We want the world to know about our difficulties, about what is worrying us now. We fled from far away to come here. This is our second escape. We could not bring anything with us. We moved with our carts; we were in the bush and there were no vehicles,” Abibou said.

“We must do more to end the suffering in Burkina Faso before despair becomes entrenched and it is added to the growing list of protracted crises. That this crisis is already so deeply neglected shows a failure of the international system to react to newly emerging crises, as it also fails those lost in the shadows for decades. Ultimately, greater investment in diplomatic solutions is needed if we hope to pull crises off this list,” said Egeland.  For the Silo, Jessica Wanless. Featured image: FILE – Children wait for their turn to buy water from a privately-owned water tower, amid an outbreak of the coronavirus disease, in Taabtenga district of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, April 3, 2020.

Facts and figures:   

  • Each year, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) publishes a list of the ten most neglected displacement crises in the world. The purpose is to focus on the plight of people whose suffering rarely makes international headlines, who receive no or inadequate assistance, and who never become the centre of attention for international diplomacy efforts. The report is available here
  • The neglected displacement crises list for 2022 analyses 39 displacement crises based on three criteria: lack of funding, lack of media attention, and lack of international political and diplomatic initiatives. Full details on the methodology can be found in the report. 
  • The full list in order this year is: Burkina Faso, DR Congo, Colombia, Sudan, Venezuela, Burundi, Cameroon, Mali, El Salvador, Ethiopia. 
  • Burkina Faso has appeared on this list for the previous four years. It ranked second on last year’s report, seventh in 2020, and third in 2019.  
  • DR Congo is a textbook example of a neglected crisis. It has topped the list three times (2021, 2020 and 2017). It previously ranked second on the list in 2019, 2018 and 2016. 
  • Colombia and El Salvador appear in this report for the first time this year. 
  • The total funding to the Burkina Faso humanitarian response plan was 339 million USD in 2022, of the 805 million USD requested – making the response just 42 per cent funded (OCHA). 
  • In 2022, 3.5 million people were in need of humanitarian assistance in Burkina Faso – by the end of the year this has skyrocketed to 4.9 million people. This is a 40% increase and nearly equal to 1 in 4 Burkinabè (OCHA). 
  • There are almost 2 million internally displaced people in Burkina Faso (IDMC). 
  • 800,000 people are living in 23 blockaded towns and cities in Burkina Faso, unable to access aid regularly. Half of them are in the city of Djibo (Access Working Group). 
  • The average humanitarian appeal was just over half funded in 2022, while the Ukraine appeal was almost 90% funded (OCHA).  
  • The gap between the total humanitarian appeals by the UN and partners and the money actually received amounted to 22 billion USD in 2022 (OCHA). 
  • Total aid to Africa was USD 34 billion in 2022 (overseas development assistance, including development aid and humanitarian), representing a drop of 7.4% compared to 2021 (OECD).  
  • Collectively the world’s most powerful donor countries used more of their aid on the reception of refugees at home than on overseas humanitarian assistance in 2022 (OECD).  
  • The European Ice Cream Market was estimated to be valued at $21.7 Billion in 2021 (Research and Markets). 
  • 212 USD was raised per person in need inside Ukraine, while 52 USD was raised per person in need across the world’s ten most neglected crises in 2022 (OCHA). 
  • In total, 375,000 articles were written in the English media about the world’s ten most neglected displacement crises last year, according to statistics from Meltwater. In comparison, 1.98 million articles were written in English about the displacement crises in Ukraine during the same period (Meltwater).  

ALIPH Allocates USD 10 Million For Cultural Heritage Protection In 12 Conflict Countries

Geneva, December 2019 

The International alliance for the protection of heritage in conflict areas (ALIPH) said on Tuesday it has allocated another USD 10 million to support 20 projects that safeguard cultural heritage in 12 countries struggling to recover from conflict, particularly in the Middle East and Africa.

Cultural heritage has been targeted in recent years by armed conflicts; its rehabilitation is now essential for social and cultural reconstruction efforts in affected countries.

ALIPH is the only global fund dedicated to the protection of cultural heritage in conflict areas. To this end, the foundation finances preventive measures, emergency interventions and concrete post-conflict rehabilitation projects all around the world.

Created in response to the massive destruction of cultural heritage in the Middle East and the Sahel region, its offices opened in Geneva in September 2018. These 20 new projects will bring this young organization’s total number of supported projects to 43, for a financing envelope of more than USD 17 million to date.

“Through these interventions, we reaffirm our commitment to help preserve mankind’s collective history and to assist those living in countries affected by conflict in building a renewed sense of hope, community and dignity”, said Dr. Thomas S. Kaplan, Chair of ALIPH Foundation Board. 

This new funding announcement deepens ALIPH’s engagement in three areas of intervention: protecting monuments and sites, safeguarding museums and their collections, and documenting and interconnecting heritage.

The Alliance will also fund, for the first time, an intangible heritage project in Afghanistan to safeguard decorative tile making, carpet weaving and Tambor making. “ALIPH’s support will allow our team to protect, safeguard, and document our priceless heritage which has been gravely weakened by decades of conflict across Afghanistan,” said Hamid Hemat, Cultural Heritage Senior Specialist and Project Manager, at the NGO Turquoise Mountain.

Image result for Hamid Hemat,
Hamid Hemat

This funding cycle will expand ALIPH’s presence from 7 to 12 countries: Afghanistan, Eritrea, Georgia, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Palestine, Peru, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen and a project in Denmark to digitize documents on the heritage of Palmyra, Syria. The depth and scope of these projects is possible only because of the strong support of its Member States and private donors.

ALIPH’s ongoing projects have already achieved several milestones, in particular the long-term initiative “Mosul Mosaic” (Iraq) that aims to rehabilitate sites representative of the cultural and religious diversity of the Old City. For instance, the Mosul Museum has now been stabilized, part of its collections safely stored, and its overall rehabilitation action plan finalized. The next step has just been approved by ALIPH, which aims to restore the collections, build capacities and pave the way for the building’s reconstruction.

Two emergency grants in Africa have also concluded: in Mali, staff were trained at the Al-Aqib Library in Timbuktu to restore 3,000 manuscripts, and in Abidjan, the protection of the collection of the Musée des Civilisation de Côte d’Ivoire has been reinforced. “This excellent project is the first of its kind in West Africa. Indeed, thanks to ALIPH’s generous support, the collections of the Museum are now well protected,” said Museum Director, Dr. Silvie Memel-Kassi.

Dr. Silvie Memel-Kassi

Download Factsheet about the projects

About ALIPH

The International alliance for the protection of heritage in conflict areas (ALIPH) provides concrete support for the protection and reconstruction of cultural heritage in conflict zones and post-conflict situations. The Alliance was founded in March 2017 in response to the massive destruction of outstanding, often ancient, cultural heritage in recent years. Operating under Swiss law, this Geneva-based foundation, also has the status of an international organization.

ALIPH financially supports associations, foundations, academic, cultural and heritage institutions, and international organizations working to preserve cultural heritage in the face of imminent conflict or to intervene for its rehabilitation. Its three areas of intervention are: preventive protection to limit the risks of destruction, emergency measures to ensure the security of heritage, and post-conflict actions to enable local populations to once again enjoy their cultural heritage.

ALIPH selects projects through regular calls—the next call will be open from 15 January-16 March. Emergency relief funding can also be applied for on a rolling basis. More information available at: www.aliph-foundation.orgFor the Silo, Sandra Bialystok Aliph Communication and Partnerships Officer.