West and Central Africa — Liptako Gourma Crisis Monthly Dashboard 49 (May 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 May 2024, 3,135,243 individuals have been displaced, including 2,636,880 internally displaced persons (84% of the displaced population) and 498,363 refugees (16% of the displaced population). Sixty-seven per cent of the displaced populations (2,100,990 individuals) were located in Burkina Faso, while 14 per cent resided in Mali (445,454 individuals), 11 per cent in Niger (352,732 individuals) and 4 per cent in Mauritania (119,354 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, 116,713 individuals were affected by displacement within the four countries (18,897 in Benin, 49,723 in Côte d’Ivoire, 7,119 in Ghana and 40,974 in Togo) of which 30,372 were internally displaced.