West and Central Africa — Liptako Gourma Crisis Monthly Dashboard 42 (October 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 October 2023, 3,007,847 individuals have been displaced, including 2,643,282 internally displaced persons (88% of the displaced population) and 364,565 refugees (12% of the displaced population). Seventy per cent of the displaced populations (2,098,917 individuals) were located in Burkina Faso, while 15 per cent resided in Mali (465,403 individuals), 9 per cent in Niger (263,918 individuals) and 3 per cent in Mauritania (104,080 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 October, 84,529 individuals were affected by displacement within the four countries (2,293 in Benin, 28,736 in Côte d’Ivoire, 7,195 in Ghana and 46,305 in Togo) of which 22,818 were internally displaced. Other estimations account for 66,915 refugees currently living in the four countries (13,499 in Benin, 26,569 in Côte d’Ivoire, 3,326 in Ghana and 23,521 in Togo)*.