West and Central Africa — Liptako Gourma Crisis Monthly Dashboard 52 (August 2024)

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 August 2024, 3,150,710 individuals have been displaced, including 2,616,570 internally displaced persons (83% of the displaced population) and 534,140 refugees (17% of the displaced population). Sixty-seven per cent of the displaced populations (2,101,935 individuals) were located in Burkina Faso, while 14 per cent resided in Mali (422,029 individuals), 11 per cent in Niger (351,560 individuals) and 4 per cent in Mauritania (136,954 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 August, 138,232 individuals were affected by displacement within the four countries (25,852 in Benin, 58,079 in Côte d’Ivoire, 7,242 in Ghana and 47,059 in Togo) of which 34,088 were internally displaced.