West and Central Africa — Liptako Gourma and Central Sahel Situation Monthly Dashboard #37 (May 2023)

The Central Sahel area, and in particular the Liptako Gourma region, which borders Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, is affected by a complex crisis involving growing competition over dwindling resources; climatic variability; demographic pressure; high levels of poverty; disaffection and a lack of livelihood opportunities; communal tensions; the absence of state institutions and basic services; and violence related to organized crime and non-state armed groups. The crisis has triggered significant displacement of populations in the concerned countries and is affecting neighbouring countries such as Mauritania and the coastal countries.

As of May 2023, 2,863,479 individuals have been displaced, including 2,617,185 internally displaced persons (91% of the displaced population) and 246,294 refugees (9% of the displaced population). Seventy-three per cent of the displaced populations (2,090,328 individuals) were located in Burkina Faso, while 14 per cent resided in Mali (410,039 individuals), 8 per cent in Niger (235,217 individuals) and 3 per cent in Mauritania (98,474 individuals). The crisis’ recent spill over to coastal countries, namely Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Togo and Benin, shows growing number of refugees coming from the Central Sahel and populations internally displaced. As of May, 29,421 individuals were affected by displacement within the four countries (2,294 in Benin, 6,316 in Côte d’Ivoire, 6,311 in Ghana and 14,500 in Togo) of which 10,397 were internally displaced.