Saturday, October 26, 2024
By Pierre Donadieu
Ouangolodougou, Ivory CoastโHere we have shelter and securityโ. Pushed out of their country by jihadist attacks and exactions by the army and its auxiliaries, tens of thousands of Burkinabรจ have found refuge in the north of Cรดte d’Ivoire, in host sites or with local people.
On the outskirts of Ouangolodougou, the center of Niorniguรฉ looks more like a small organized village than a refugee camp.
No tents here, but a thousand mud-brick houses with corrugated iron roofs lined up on a ten-hectare site.
More than 6,000 โasylum seekersโ – Cรดte d’Ivoire does not recognize them as refugees – are housed here, the vast majority Peul herders who have left their belongings and livestock behind.
โSince we arrived, we’ve been well received, we feel good hereโ, explains Adama Maรฏga, who is breastfeeding her baby born a month earlier on the site.
Each family has its own โshelterโ, with a bedroom and a small living room. A playground with a few swings adjoins a square where a small market is held daily, and four mechanical pumps provide the water supply.
Women and children make up the vast majority of Niorniguรฉ’s population, still traumatized by the exactions of jihadists, soldiers and Volunteers for the Defense of the Homeland (VDP, civilian auxiliaries to the army).
For almost ten years, Burkina Faso has been hit by violence perpetrated by jihadist groups linked to al-Qaeda or the Islamic State, which have claimed tens of thousands of lives, while the army and the VDP are regularly accused of committing massacres against civilians.
โMany women have lost their husbands thereโ, recalls Fatou (first name changed), whose husband was killed by gunmen, from the crack of her shelter.
– Full website –
On this rainy Wednesday, it’s โpaydayโ for every asylum seeker who receives a small monthly allowance of 5,000 CFA francs (7.5 euros), distributed by the World Food Program (WFP), to buy food.
Several hundred people are queuing up to show their plastic asylum seeker’s card, which enables them to be registered and receive the money.
โWith this, I’ll be able to pay for food for the children, maybe a 50kg bag of riceโ, explains Amadou Barry, who leaves with 30,000 francs (45 euros) in his pocket for his family of six.
But the sum that often constitutes the sole resource of asylum seekers has recently been halved due to the influx of applications.
โHere, we have a roof over our heads and security, but resources are scarce and we have no work, so the children go to work in town to bring in a little money,โ Fatou recounts.
The Ivorian government almost entirely financed the construction of this site, as well as another of similar size further east, near Bouna.
โWe didn’t have to do it, but Cรดte d’Ivoire is a country of hospitality. Since 2021, refugees have been moving in with local residents, and some villages were saturated. We created these sites to better coordinate assistance and avoid conflicts between herders and farmersโ, explains Paulin Yรฉwรฉ, defense and security advisor to the Ivorian presidency.
Rather than opting for tents supplied by humanitarian aid – saturated with demand due to the conflict in Ukraine – the authorities opted for โsemi-hardโ construction, quicker to set up with local operators and ultimately less costly.
Just over a year after opening, the site is already fully booked.
– A surge of generosity –
But the people housed at Niorniguรฉ are only a small proportion of the 66,000 or so arrivals, according to UNHCR estimates: the majority have been taken in by families in various localities in northern Cรดte d’Ivoire.
This is the case in โOuangoloโ, located at the crossroads of Burkina (30 km) and Mali (90 km).
In the Koko neighborhood, Ibrahima Tourรฉ is a โguardianโ. He is the one who registers the arriving families and sometimes provides them with temporary accommodation.
โJust Friday evening, eight women and children arrived, so I’m putting them up in my store until they can find a small house,โ he explains.
During the first waves in 2023, โI had up to 30 people in my yard for over 7 monthsโ, he recalls.
A little further on in another courtyard, in the shelter of a sickly mango tree, Djibril Barry, another tutor, explains this surge of generosity.
โThe refugees from Burkina Faso are our relatives. We’re taking them in because there’s a crisis back home. We’re doing the best we can with our meagre means,โ he explains.
โOur tradition is to welcome foreigners. These are people who have left their country in deplorable conditions, and we treat them like brothers,โ confirms Ouangolodougou village chief Siaka Ouattara.
To subsist, the asylum seekers rely on the mutual aid of their host families and a few donations from the Ivorian government or international institutions such as the UNHCR.
The dream of most of them is to find a small field to cultivate and feed their families, and to send their children to school, which is the case for only a few hundred of them.
โEveryone knows it’s here that there’s peace,โ smiles Aliou, who arrived from Cรดte d’Ivoire last year. Saรฏdou, who fled with his family, nods: โAt least they don’t kill me hereโ.
Humaniterre with AFP
Photos Issouf Sanogo
