Forced to flee their homes by extremist attacks and abuses by the army, tens of thousands of people from Burkina Faso have found refuge in northern Ivory Coast, hosted in camps or by locals.
In the Niornigue camp, outside the city of Ouangolodougou, hundreds of metal-roofed brick houses shelter uprooted Burkinabe, mostly herders from the semi-nomadic Fulani community who were forced to leave their cattle and possessions behind.
The site, which is sheltering more than 6,000 of the 66,000 asylum seekers who have fled to neighbouring Ivory Coast, looks more like a village than a refugee camp.
The Ivorian government does not officially recognise the occupants as refugees. But many locals have gone out of their way to help them.
“Since we arrived, we have felt welcome — we feel good here,” said Adama Maiga, breastfeeding her month-old baby, who was born in the camp.
Each family has been assigned a shelter with a bedroom and a small living room. Next to a square where a daily market and four water pumps have been set up, a playground has been equipped with a few swings.
The camp’s majority of women and children have suffered abuses committed by presumed jihadists, the Burkinabe army or the Volunteers for the Defence of the Homeland, civilians recruited into the army.
“Many women have lost their husbands,” said Fatou, whose own husband was killed by armed militants.
She is far from the only Niornigue newcomer to have had family killed.
Thousands have died and about two million have been displaced by fighting that has raged since 2015, when an insurgency in neighbouring Mali spilled over into Burkina Faso.
Back-to-back coups in Burkina Faso, in January and September 2022, were precipitated by bloody attacks by armed groups.
Jihadist fighters affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group have killed more than 20,000 people in Burkina Faso since 2015 — including some 3,800 this year alone — according to the ACLED analysis group, which tracks global conflict.
‘A roof and security’
On a rainy Wednesday, hundreds queued to collect a 5,000-CFA-franc voucher ($8.50), handed out to registered asylum seekers by the World Food Programme.
“With this, I’ll be able to pay for food for my children, maybe for a 50-kilogramme (110-pound) bag of rice,” said Amadou Barry, who pocketed around $50 for his family of six.
The stipend, typically the asylum seekers’ sole income, was slashed by half due to high demand — and people are living only with the basics.
“Here, we have a roof and security, but resources are scarce and we are not working, so the children go work in the city to bring back a bit of money,” said Fatou.
The Ivorian government covered nearly all the costs to build the site, as well as another of the same size near the northeastern city of Bouna.
Paulin Yewe, a defence and security advisor for the Ivorian presidency, said that some refugees had been staying with locals and crowding villages.
“We didn’t have to do it, but Ivory Coast is a country of hospitality,” said Yewe. “We created these sites to better coordinate assistance and avoid conflict between herders and farmers.”
Rather than setting up tents provided by humanitarian organisations, which were overwhelmed by demand amid the war in Ukraine, the Ivorian authorities opted for “semi-concrete” constructions — a faster and cheaper option.
A little over a year since it opened, the site has reached full capacity.
‘Family’
But those housed in Niornigue make up only a fraction of the 66,000 arrivals estimated by the United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR — with the majority taken in by families across the north of the country.
In Ouangolodougou, just 30 kilometres (18 miles) from Burkina Faso, Ibrahim Traore works as a volunteer, registering newly arrived families and sometimes hosting them temporarily.
“On Friday night, eight women and children arrived, so I am hosting them in my shop while they look for a small house,” he said.
During the first waves of displaced persons in 2023, Traore said he once hosted up to 30 people in his courtyard for more than seven months.
Djibril Barry, another volunteer host, explained the outpouring of support.
“Refugees from Burkina are our family. We take them in because they have a crisis at home. We do our best with what little we have,” he said.
The chief of Ouangolodougou, Siaka Ouattara, said the village had a tradition of welcoming strangers.
“These are people who left their country in deplorable conditions — we treat them like our brothers,” he said.
Asylum seekers depend on their host families’ generosity and some donations by the Ivorian government or international organisations, like UNHCR.
Most dream of finding a small plot of land to farm and feed their families, and of sending their children to school — which is the case for only about 100 of them.
“Everyone knows that there is peace here,” said Aliou, who arrived last year in Ivory Coast.
Saidou, who fled with his family, nodded.
“Here at least, I won’t be killed.”
