MSF suspends its activities in Burkina Faso after the murder of two of its workers

17 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) –

The NGO Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has reported this Friday that they are suspending all their operations in Burkina Faso as a result of the attack on February 8 that suffered their office in the country and in which two of their workers died.

“This measure, necessary due to the time of mourning, is essential to analyze the risks to which our teams are currently exposed,” the NGO explained through a Twitter thread.

“It is also about reaffirming the unacceptable nature of this attack against colleagues who were traveling in a clearly identified MSF vehicle as part of their medical mission,” the organization denounced.

However, despite suspending its activities, MSF has assured that it will take care of “vital emergencies”. The NGO teams, present in four regions of the country, have carried out nearly 400,000 primary health consultations and have assisted some 4,300 women in childbirth between July and December 2022.

MSF had already suspended its activities in the Boucle du Mouhoun region, where the attack that killed two of its staff, Souleymane Ouedraogo, a logistics manager, and Komon Dioma, a driver, took place.

Burkina Faso, ruled by a military junta since the January 2022 coup against then-president Roch Marc Christian Kaboré, has experienced increased insecurity since 2015. The junta is now headed by Ibrahim Traoré, who starred in September a coup that was considered a “palace coup” against the hitherto leader, Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba.

The continuous attacks in the country, carried out by both the Al Qaeda affiliate and the Islamic State affiliate in the region, have also contributed to an increase in inter-communal violence and have caused self-defense groups to flourish, to which the Burkinabe government has added to ‘volunteers’. The deterioration of security has caused a wave of internally displaced persons and refugees to other countries in the region.