Insecurity increases migration to southern regions and coastal countries

Security incidents are ongoing and increasing in the country. In the past month, 48 incidents have affected 15 out of 45 provinces, leading to an increase of about two percent in the number of internally displaced populations since February to 779,741 (CONASUR, 29 February 2020). In the more insecure northern areas, 70 to 80 percent of households depend on one or two sources of income, including the sale of livestock and/or gold panning. However, limited access to gold panning sites and the loss of animals due to looting by armed groups is constraining these activities and leading to an increase in seasonal migration to the southern regions of the country or to coastal countries in search of paid work.

Local markets continue to be disrupted, especially in the northern border communities. Insecurity and the abandonment of these areas by local populations discourages traders from supplying these markets. On the other hand, the main markets in the urban centers, around which the IDPs are concentrated, remain fairly well supplied with basic foodstuffs from the inflows from the calmer production areas in the west. Food assistance is helping to reduce household demand, and prices are generally stable or decreased by 10 to 20 percent compared to the five-year average

Among host households in more insecure areas, stocks from own production are depleting, leading to an increased dependence on markets and humanitarian food assistance. Assistance delivered in the last three months remains low, except in Soum and Sanmatenga Provinces, where it reaches 30 and 22 percent of the population respectively. This forces households to reduce the quantities and number of meals consumed. According to the food consumption score (FCS) results from the national survey (SAP/ENISAN, January 2020), food consumption remains poor or limited, affecting more than 50 percent of households in these areas.

Thanks to the humanitarian food assistance provided, IDPs and poor host households in Sanmatenga and Soum are experiencing Stressed (IPC Phase 2!).  On the other hand, poor households in the other provinces of the Centre-North and Sahel Regions and the neighboring provinces of Loroum and Komandjoari remain in Crisis (IPC Phase 3). The calmer parts of the country remain in Minimal (IPC Phase 1).

COVID-19, which is continuing to spread in Burkina Faso with 246 confirmed cases and 12 deaths recorded as of 29 March according to the Government Information Service (GIS), has prompted the authorities to take restrictive measures. These include: the introduction of curfews from 7 p.m. to 5 a.m., banning the inter-city transport of people, the immediate quarantine of any town with at least one confirmed case (10 towns currently affected), and the closure of 36 main markets in the capital, and the country's main livestock markets. In addition to the loss of these activities, this prevents many households from generating income. In the immediate term, these measures will lead to an increase in household food vulnerability, particularly the 53 percent of self-employed workers in the informal sector, 90 percent of whom are affected by the incidence of poverty (INSD, 2014).