Burkina Faso: 17,500 people have fled the country since the start of the year

More than 17,500 people have been forced to flee Burkina Faso since the start of the year, due to jihadist attacks, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) announced on Friday, which said it was "

”.

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"

" UNHCR spokesperson Babar Baloch said in a note sent to AFP.

"

" he continued.

Mass exiles in the direction of Mali and Niger

Most have fled to neighboring countries: mainly to Mali, which hosts 20,000 Burkinabè, including 6,600 who arrived in the Timbuktu region (north-west) since the start of the year and in Niger, which has 11,400 asylum seekers from Burkina Faso. against 7,400 in January.

While 430 Burkinabè asylum seekers found refuge in Côte d'Ivoire in May, 179 were identified by the UNHCR in northern Benin, where "

" are believed to be living in border areas inaccessible to aid workers. security reasons.

1,500 dead from jihadist violence

Burkina Faso also has more than 1.3 million “

”, people forced to flee their homes for other localities in the country, ie 6% of the population.

"

" notes UNHCR.

To read also: "For them, I was only a disbeliever": the story of an ex-hostage of the jihadists in the Sahel

Burkina Faso, a poor Sahelian country, has been facing increasingly frequent and deadly jihadist attacks since 2015, notably from the Support Group for Islam and Muslims, affiliated with Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (Aqmi) and the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (EIGS) group. The security forces are struggling to stop this jihadist violence which has left more than 1,500 dead.